Amos 5:7

Jehovah demands righteousness: the prophet, with passion and indignation, declares abruptly how far Israel is from righteousness, and then proceeds to announce again the doom which it may in consequence confidently expect. As before (Amos 2:6-8; Amos 4:1), Israel's crying sin is neglect of civil justice, and oppression of the poor: it is the aristocracy who arouse the moral indignation of Amos, as afterwards, in Judah, they aroused that of Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah.

turn judgment to wormwood Instead of being something wholesome and grateful, it is bitter and cruel to those who have to receive it. For wormwood(always as a figure for something bitter), cf. Amos 6:12; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:15; Lamentations 3:19; Proverbs 5:4; Revelation 8:11. The plant in question (Heb. la-ǎnâh; Aq. [Prov. and Jer.] ἀψίνθιον, whence Vulg. [everywhere] apsinthium: LXX. paraphrases, in Amos 6:12 by πικρία) is a species of the genus Artemisium, of which several varieties are found in Palestine (Tristram, N.H.[157]. p. 493; Fauna and Flora of Palestine, p. 331).

[157] .H.B… H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible(1868).

and lay righteousness down on the earth instead of maintaining it erect, in its place (cf. Amos 5:15), they (Pusey) -dethrone" it, and layit (Isaiah 28:2) ignominiously on the ground: we should rather say, -trample it under foot" (Hitz.). -Righteousness," as the context shews, means here civil justice(as 2 Samuel 8:15; Jeremiah 22:3, and frequently). The virtue is almost personified (cf. Isaiah 59:14).