Dusk on the stone doorstep of a fine cut-stone house in Samaria: a pair of worn plain leather sandals left on the step before a shut cedar door, the wall and sky above calm and empty.

The nations judged

Amos 2

What is a person worth to you? Here the price was a pair of sandals.

16 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–2The nations judgedEight oracles, closing on IsraelChapter 2
3–5:17Hear this wordThree messages to Samaria
5:18–6Woe to those at easeThe Day of the LORD, and Zion’s comfort
7–9:10Five visionsLocusts, fire, plumb line, fruit, the altar
9:11–15The fallen tent raisedRuins rebuilt, vineyards planted

Judgment on Moab, Judah, and Israel

God

This is what the LORD says:

“For three transgressions of Moab, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because he burned to lime

the bones of Edom’s king.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

God

So I will send fire against Moab

to consume the citadels of Kerioth.

Moab will die in tumult,

amid war cries and the sound of the ram’s horn.

I will cut off the ruler of Moab

and kill all the officials with him,”

says the LORD.

God

This is what the LORD says:

“For three transgressions of Judah, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they reject the Law of the LORD

and fail to keep His statutes;

they are led astray by the lies

in which their fathers walked.

So I will send fire upon Judah

to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.”

Reflect

Known and set aside

Judah’s charge is quieter than the others: God’s word known, and set aside. Where are you most tempted to know what is right and not do it? Write it down, and bring it to Him.

God

This is what the LORD says:

“For three transgressions of Israel, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they sell the righteous for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals.

Amos 2:6

God

God

They trample on the heads of the poor

as on the dust of the earth;

they push the needy out of their way.

God

A man and his father

have relations with the same girl

and so profane My holy name.

God

Night at a hilltop altar: a poor man's coarse wool cloak folded on a stone step at the altar's foot, a clay wine jar and a small clay oil lamp beside it, no one there.

They lie down beside every altar

on garments taken in pledge.

And in the house of their God,

they drink wine obtained through fines.

The circle closes

Whiteboard

The hearers could nod at every sentence, from far-off Damascus to Judah next door. The eighth was theirs.

God

Morning on a hillside: a huge oak lies uprooted across the slope, its great roots torn out of the earth and its crown broken against the ground.

Yet it was I who destroyed

the Amorite before them,

though his height was like that of the cedars,

and he was as strong as the oaks.

Yet I destroyed his fruit above

and his roots below.

God

And I brought you up from the land of Egypt

and led you forty years in the wilderness,

that you might take possession

of the land of the Amorite.

God

I raised up prophets from your sons

and Nazirites from your young men.

Is this not true,

O children of Israel?”

declares the LORD.

“But you made the Nazirites drink wine

and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

God

A heavy wooden ox cart piled high with sheaves on a soft field track, its spoked wooden wheels sunk deep in the earth, two oxen straining in the yoke.

Behold, I am about to crush you in your place

as with a cart full of grain.

God

Question

Quick question

Eight nations in all, one after another. Think about who was listening.

Why would this list of nations have shocked Amos’s first hearers?

You’ve experienced

Amos 2

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A verse to carry with you

For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.

Amos 2:6

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