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Amos

About this book
Chapter 2

1 This is what the Lord says: “Because Moab has committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They burned the bones of Edom’s king into lime. 2 So I will set Moab on fire, and it will consume Kerioth’s fortresses. Moab will perish in the heat of battle amid war cries and the blaring of the ram’s horn. 3 I will remove Moab’s leader; I will kill all Moab’s officials with him.” The Lord has spoken! 4 This is what the Lord says: “Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They rejected the Lord’s law; they did not obey his commands. Their false gods, to which their fathers were loyal, led them astray. 5 So I will set Judah on fire, and it will consume Jerusalem’s fortresses.” 6 This is what the Lord says: “Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They sold the innocent for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.⁠ 7 They trample on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; they push the destitute away. A man and his father go to the same girl; in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity.⁠ 8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;⁠ they do so right beside every altar!⁠ They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God!⁠ 9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks,⁠ but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground. 10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for 40 years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own. 11 I made some of your sons prophets and some of your young men Nazirites. Is this not true, you Israelites?” The Lord is speaking. 12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine;⁠ you commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy!’ 13 Look! I will press you down, like a cart loaded down with grain presses down. 14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; strong men will have no strength left; warriors will not be able to save their lives. 15 Archers will not hold their ground; fast runners will not save their lives, nor will those who ride horses. 16 Bravehearted warriors will run away naked⁠ in that day.” The Lord is speaking.

Texts in conversation

Compare Code of Hammurabi §241 and Amos 2:8

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Amos shares the concern with abusive seizure of property found in the Code of Hammurabi, exposing the injustice of people who enjoy goods taken from poor debtors while claiming to honor God.

Passages

Code of Hammurabi §241

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Babylonian Legal Text
238 If a sailor wrecks someone's ship but salvages it, he shall pay half its value in silver. 239 If a man hires a sailor, he shall pay him six gur of grain per year. 240 If a cargo ship runs into a ferryboat and wrecks it, the master of the wrecked boat shall seek justice before the god; the master of the cargo ship that wrecked the ferryboat shall compensate its owner for the boat and everything he ruined. 241 If anyone seizes an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver. 242 If anyone hires oxen for a year, he shall pay four gur of grain as hire for plow oxen. 243 As hire for herd cattle he shall pay three gur of grain to the owner.
1750 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Code of Hammurabi

Amos 2:8

Hebrew Bible
7 They trample on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; they push the destitute away. A man and his father go to the same girl; in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity. 8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God! 9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground. 10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for 40 years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

References

“... 2:8. nature of irony. The great irony in Amos’s charges against the rich is that they display their excesses before sacred altars in a shrine dedicated to God. It is possible that they were within their legal rights to seize a garment in default of debt or to purchase wine with funds that had been generated by fining the poor for some offense. However, Yahweh had said (Ex 22:25-26) that the outraged cries of the poor would be heard, “for I am compassionate.” As in the case of the worker in the Yavneh Yam inscription, the creditor is to not only obey the law but also take into consideration what seizure of property will do to prevent the debtor from earning a living (see Hammurabi’s Code, which forbids seizure of a debtor’s ox). ...”
John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000), 766–767.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Code of Hammurabi §241 and Amos 2:8

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