Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Amos Kapitel 2

Amos 2:1. Because he burned the bones, &c.— "That not even the ashes of the bones might remain, or be distinguished from lime." See 2 Kings 3:27.

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Amos 2:3. I will cut off the judge— "I will so destroy this nation, that there shall not be in it king, governor, or chief." For the name of judge is here used for all in authority. Compare this prediction with that in the 48th of Jeremiah.

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Amos 2:5. I will send a fire upon Judah— The war commenced in Judah, at the end of the reign of Jotham son of Uzziah, when the Lord sent against him Rezin king of Assyria, and Pekah king of Israel. See, for the history here alluded to, 2 Kings 15:37; 2Ki 16:7; 2Ki 18:7 and 2 Chronicles 28:0.

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Amos 2:6. Because they sold the righteous— That is to say, they received the money as a bribe, to condemn the just; and for a little paltry gain,—for a pair of sandals, they sacrificed the interests and the cause of the poor. It is a proverbial manner of speaking, similar to that in Ezekiel 13:19. See also Joe 3:3 and chap. Amo 8:6 of our prophet. The author of the Observations remarks, that Maillet speaks diminutively of the cobeal, or the sandals of the ladies, which are carried in their nuptial processions, with the rest of the bride's furniture; though, according to his account, they are not wholly without ornament. Shoes perhaps of this kind are here referred to; where shoes have been commonly, and as should hence seem justly, understood to mean something of small value. "The Turkish officers, and also their wives, (says Rauwolff, speaking of Tripoli on the coast of Syria,) go very richly clothed with flowered silks artificially made, and mixed of divers colours. But these clothes (he observes) are commonly given them by those who have causes depending before them, (for they do not love to part with their own money,) to promote their cause, and to be favourable to them." We seem here to have a picture of that corruption of the Jewish judges, which Amos complains of. Silver made them pervert the judgment of the righteous; nay, so mean a piece of finery, as a pair of wooden sandals for their wives, would make them condemn the innocent poor, who could not afford to make them a present of equal value. Chap. Amo 8:6 may possibly in like manner be understood of the rich defrauding the poor; knowing that if those poor complained, they could carry their point against them for a little silver, if not for a pair of cobeal. Observations, p. 244.

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Amos 2:7. That pant, &c.— That stamp upon, or tread upon the heads of the poor, in the dust of the earth, &c. Houbigant.

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Amos 2:8. And they lay themselves down, &c.— Amos here reproves the Israelites for three abuses. The first, that they kept the clothes which they had received as pledges from the poor, contrary to the law, which commanded that the clothes received in pledge should be returned by the going down of the sun. See Exodus 22:26. The second, that they made feasts in the houses of their gods, in the temples of their idols or golden calves; for then they no longer came to the temple at Jerusalem; and, as if to insult the holiness of God's laws, and to carry the marks of their iniquity even to the feet of their altars, they sat them down in their temples, upon the garments which they had received in pledge from the poor. The third abuse is, that they caroused at the expence of those whom they had unjustly condemned.

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