10:4 empty oaths. The king’s commitments could be covenants as a vassal to Assyria, which are deemed false because they were ratified by invoking Assyrian deities (cf. v. 6). More likely, the broken obligations in view are those of the king to his people (2 Sam. 3:21; 5:3), chief of which is to maintain justice.

poisonous weeds. Or “wormwood,” as the Hebrew term is translated in Amos 6:12.