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Upon garments taken in pledge
    they recline beside any altar.[a](A)
Wine at treasury expense
    they drink in their temples.
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them,
    who were as tall as cedars,
    and as strong as oak trees.
I destroyed their fruit above
    and their roots beneath.(B)
10 It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
    and who led you through the desert for forty years,
    to occupy the land of the Amorites;

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Footnotes

  1. 2:8 Upon garments…any altar: creditors kept the garments taken as pledges from the poor instead of returning them to their owners before nightfall as the law commanded (Ex 22:25; cf. Dt 24:12). Wine…in their temples: lavish feasts for the rich, serving the finest wines in great abundance (see 6:4–7) and funded by the treasuries of local temples (e.g., at Dan and Bethel). The Hebrew in this verse is difficult. Another possible translation would be: “And the wine of those who have been fined / they drink in the house of their god.”

They lie down beside every altar
    on garments taken in pledge.(A)
In the house of their god
    they drink wine(B) taken as fines.(C)

“Yet I destroyed the Amorites(D) before them,
    though they were tall(E) as the cedars
    and strong as the oaks.(F)
I destroyed their fruit above
    and their roots(G) below.
10 I brought you up out of Egypt(H)
    and led(I) you forty years in the wilderness(J)
    to give you the land of the Amorites.(K)

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