Amos 5:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 5:11
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
to trample down · verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
poor
דָּ֗לDal
H1800
properly · adjective, masculine singular absolute
take
תִּקְח֣וּtik.Chu
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
burdens
וּמַשְׂאַתu.mas.'at-
H4864
properly · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
wheat
בַּר֙bar
H1250
grain of any kind (even while standing in the field) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
built
בְּנִיתֶ֖םbe.ni.Tem
H1129
to build (literally and figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
houses
בָּתֵּ֥יba.Tei
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine plural construct
stone
גָזִ֛יתga.Zit
H1496
something cut · noun, common feminine singular absolute
dwell
תֵ֣שְׁבוּTe.she.vu
H3427
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
planted
נְטַעְתֶּ֔םne.ta'.Tem
H5193
properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
pleasant
חֶ֣מֶדChe.med
H2531
delight · noun, common masculine singular absolute
vineyards
כַּרְמֵיkar.mei-
H3754
a garden or vineyard · noun, common masculine plural construct
drink
תִשְׁתּ֖וּtish.Tu
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
wine
יֵינָֽםyei.Nam
H3196
wine (as fermented) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 28:30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant…
Micah 6:15 Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not…
Zephaniah 1:13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shal…
James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there…
Revelation 11:8-10 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucif…
Amos 3:15-4:1 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith…
Micah 2:2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his he…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 5:4-15
This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which,
I. They are told of their faults, that they might see what occasion there was for them to repent and reform, and that, when they were called to return, they might not need to ask, Wherein shall we return?
1. God tells them, in general (Amo 5:12), "I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins; and you shall be made to know them too." In our penitent reflections upon our sins we must consider, as God does in his judicial remarks upon them, and will do in the great day, (1.) That they are very numerous; they are our manifold transgressions, sins of various kinds and often repeated. Oh what a multitude of vain and vile tho…
burdens of wheat--burdensome taxes levied in kind from the wheat of the needy, to pamper the lusts of the great [HENDERSON]. Or wheat advanced in time of scarcity, and exacted again at a burdensome interest [RABBI SALOMON].
built houses . . . but not dwell in them . . . vineyards, . . . but not drink wine of them--according to the original prophecy of Moses (Deu 28:30, Deu 28:38-39). The converse shall be true in restored Israel (Amo 9:14; Isa 65:21-22).
Adam Clarke on Amos 5:11
Your treading is upon the poor - You tread them under your feet; they form the road on which ye walk; and yet it was by oppressing and impoverishing them that ye gained your riches.
Ye take from him burdens of wheat - Ye will have his bread for doing him justice.
John Gill on Amos 5:11
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,.... This seems to be spoken to the princes, judges, and civil magistrates, as Kimchi observes; who oppressed the poor and needy, and crushed them to the ground, trampled upon them, stripped them of the little substance they had, and left them destitute; exercising a cruel and tyrannical power over them, they having none to stand by them, and deliver them:
and ye take from him burdens of wheat; which perhaps he had been gleaning in the field, and was carrying home for the support of his family; or which he had gotten with great labour, and was all he had in the world: this they took away from him, for the payment of pretended debts, or l…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11 and following) Therefore, because you plundered the poor and took the choice spoil from them, you will build houses of cut stone but not live in them. You will plant pleasant vineyards but not drink their wine, for I know your many crimes and powerful sins, you who oppress the righteous and take bribes, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore, the wise will be silent in that time, for it is an evil time. LXX: Therefore, because you struck the poor with fists, and took from them choice gifts, you built houses with hewn stones, but will not live in them. You planted desirable vineyards, but will not drink their wine; for I know your many wicked acts and your mighty sins: trampling the righteous, accepting bribes, and turning away the poor at the gates. Therefore, those who have understanding will keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time. Lest perhaps Israel might think that they were delivered to punishment by the enemies only for idolatry, he joins other things which he committed, having lost the religion of truth. 'You were ravaging,' he says, 'the poor so that you could take from him who scarcely had necessary food, and whatever precious and beautiful things you saw, you handed them over to your own uses. And from the price of those things which you were seizing and taking from the poor, you built houses with squared stone, so that by despoiling men, you could clothe walls with marble, which, because you built them from plunder, and not only a dwelling and a roof, which human weakness requires, but also beauty and delights, you prepared them suddenly for captivity or death, you will not dwell in them.' You have also planted very loving vineyards for future drinks, and you do not drink wine from them, because I know all your sins and crimes, and strong sins that provoke my wrath. You are enemies of justice, all of you who accept gifts and oppress the poor in judgment. Therefore, the poor and wise person, when he sees the judge who redeems him, will be silent in that time, because it is an evil time. Certainly, it should be understood in this way: what profit is there now in enumerating your sins, since there is already no remedy, and the enemy army surrounds the walls of your cities? We can also say this about heretics, who plunder the poor or strike his head with a raised hand, for this is what κατεκονδύλιζον means in Greek,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
House — Till their sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews dwelt in tents. They then for the first time inhabited cities (Gen. 47:3; Ex. 12:7; Heb. 11:9). From the earliest times the Assyrians and the Canaanites were…
House · .Stone — .Stone
Houses · Built of: Hewn or cut stone — Built of: Hewn or cut stone
Injustice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Justice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Poor, The · The wicked: Tread down — The wicked: Tread down
Stones · Houses built of — Houses built of
Tax · Paid in grain — Paid in grain
Vineyards · The wicked judicially deprived of the enjoyment of — The wicked judicially deprived of the enjoyment of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Amos 5:11
11. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
11. Quia calcastis pauperem (vel, onus imposuistis,) et onus frumenti abstulistis ab eo, domos excisionis (hoc est, ex lapide quadrato) aedificabitis, et non habitabitis in illis; vineas desiderabiles plantabitis, et non bibetis vinum earum.
The Prophet here declares, that though the judges enriched themselves by plunder, yet God would not allow them to enjoy their booty, but that he would deprive them of the great wealth they had accumulated.…
"They hate the monitor in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Amo 5:11. Therefore, because ye tread upon the poor, and take the distribution of corn from him, ye have built houses of square stones, and will not dwell therein; planted pleasant vineyards, and will not drink their wine. Amo 5:12. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great your sins; oppressing the righteous, taking atonement money; and ye bow down the poor in the gate." However natural it may seem to take מוכיח and דּבר תּמים in Amo 5:10 as referring to prophets, who charge the ungodly with their acts of unrighteousness, as Jerome does, this explanation is precluded not only by bassha‛ar (in the gat…
stone houses: Again, Amos targets the rich. The houses of peasants were built of mud brick. Cut stone, the result of laborious handwork, was very expensive.
Rashi on Amos 5:11
you have trodden Heb. בּוֹשַׁסְכֶם, like בּוֹסַסְכֶם, you have trodden on the poor, that you trample and tread on his head. Like (Jer. 12:10) “They have trampled (בּוֹסְסוּ) My field.”
and the burden of grain you take—The settling of the balance as a loan, that you raised the market price for them immediately to sell them grain with interest, in order to take their estate from them. Therefore, houses and vineyards that you have built and planted on those estates shall not remain in your hands. and the burden Heb. מַשְׂאֵת, an expression of מַשָּׂא, a burden, which they make heavy upon them.
precious vineyards Heb. כַּרְמֵי חֶמֶד.
