Amos 2:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Judah
4 [a]Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Judah, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they spurned the instruction of the Lord,(A)
and did not keep his statutes;
Because the lies[b] which their ancestors followed
have led them astray,
5 I will send fire upon Judah,
and it will devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Israel,[c] and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they hand over the just for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals;(B)
Footnotes
- 2:4–8, 12 Unlike the crimes of the nations detailed in this section, which are wrongs against other nations, those of Judah and Israel named here are violations of the Lord’s demands.
- 2:4 The lies: false gods worshiped by the Judahites.
- 2:6 Israel: Amos’s audience would applaud his condemnation of foreign kingdoms in the foregoing seven oracles, especially of Judah. But now he adds an eighth, unexpected oracle—against Israel itself. This is the real “punch line” of this whole section, to which the preceding oracles serve mainly as introduction.
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