Amos 8:6

Modern

Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

Traditional

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

Literal

…to acquire the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even selling the chaff with the wheat?”

Latin

…ut possideamus in argento egenos et pauperes pro calceamentis, et quisquilias frumenti vendamus?

Hebrew

English

Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

This section provides more details on the accusations and decisions mentioned earlier (read with Amos 2:6–6:14).

This section contains five visions. It is helpful to compare how these visions develop with the judgments listed earlier in Amos 4:6–11.

The judgments listed there include:

Theme notes and profiles

Amos 2:6
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.
Leviticus 25:39–42
If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
Joel 3:6
You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far from their homeland.
Nehemiah 5:1–5
About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
Joel 3:3
They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.
Amos 8:4
Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
Nehemiah 5:8
…and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.