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THE MESSAGE

Amos 5:7

Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud. Do you realize where you are? You're in a cosmos star-flung with constellations by God, A world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night. God dips water from the ocean and gives the land a drink. God , God-revealed, does all this. And he can destroy it as easily as make it. He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Justice;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Righteousness;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Wormwood;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Righteousness;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Amos, Theology of;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Wormwood;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Amos;   Wormwood;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Righteousness;   Wormwood;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hemlock;   Wormwood,;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Wormwood;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Amos (1);   Calf, Golden;   Wormwood;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Memra;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Those who turn justice into wormwoodalso throw righteousness to the ground.
Hebrew Names Version
You who turn justice to wormwood, And cast down righteousness to the eretz:
King James Version
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
English Standard Version
O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!
New American Standard Bible
For those who turn justice into wormwood, And throw righteousness to the earth."
New Century Version
You turn justice upside down, and you throw on the ground what is right.
Amplified Bible
For those [shall be consumed] who turn justice into wormwood (bitterness) And cast righteousness down to the earth."
Geneva Bible (1587)
They turne iudgement to wormewood, and leaue off righteousnes in the earth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For those who turn justice into wormwood And cast righteousness down to the earth."
Legacy Standard Bible
For those who overturn justice into wormwoodAnd put righteousness down to the earth."
Berean Standard Bible
You who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground...
Contemporary English Version
You people are doomed! You twist the truth and stomp on justice.
Complete Jewish Bible
You who turn justice to bitter wormwood and throw righteousness to the ground!
Darby Translation
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,
Easy-to-Read Version
You should go to the Lord for help. He is the one who made the Pleiades and Orion. He changes darkness into the morning light. He changes the day into the dark night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is Yahweh ! He keeps one strong city safe, and he lets another strong city be destroyed." You change justice to poison. You throw away fairness like trash. <
George Lamsa Translation
You who turn justice into bitterness, and lower righteousness to the ground,
Good News Translation
You are doomed, you that twist justice and cheat people out of their rights!
Lexham English Bible
Ah, you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground!
Literal Translation
He abandoned those who turn justice and righteousness into wormwood on the earth.
American Standard Version
Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,
Bible in Basic English
You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast righteousness to the ground;
King James Version (1611)
Ye who turne iudgment to wormwood, and leaue off righteousnesse in the earth:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They turne iudgement to wormewood, and forsake righteousnesse in the earth.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
It is he that executes judgment in the height above, and he has established justice on the earth:
English Revised Version
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth;
World English Bible
You who turn justice to wormwood, And cast down righteousness to the earth:
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whiche conuerten doom in to wermod, and forsaken riytwisnesse in the lond,
Update Bible Version
You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,
Webster's Bible Translation
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness on the earth,
New English Translation
The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
New King James Version
You who turn justice to wormwood, And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!"
New Living Translation
You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt.
New Life Bible
You turn what is right into something bitter. You throw what is right and good down to the earth.
New Revised Standard
Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye who turn, into, wormwood, justice, and, righteousness - to the ground have let fall.
Douay-Rheims Bible
You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land,
Revised Standard Version
O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
Young's Literal Translation
Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye turne the lawe to wormwod, and cast downe rightuousnes vnto the grounde.

Contextual Overview

4 God 's Message to the family of Israel: "Seek me and live. Don't fool around at those shrines of Bethel, Don't waste time taking trips to Gilgal, and don't bother going down to Beer-sheba. Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow and Bethel is all show, no substance." 6 So seek God and live! You don't want to end up with nothing to show for your life But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground. For God will send just such a fire, and the firefighters will show up too late. 7Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud. Do you realize where you are? You're in a cosmos star-flung with constellations by God, A world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night. God dips water from the ocean and gives the land a drink. God , God-revealed, does all this. And he can destroy it as easily as make it. He can turn this vast wonder into total waste. 10People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular. But here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You're never going to move into the luxury homes you have built. You're never going to drink wine from the expensive vineyards you've planted. I know precisely the extent of your violations, the enormity of your sins. Appalling! You bully right-living people, taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they're down. 13 Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath. 14 Seek good and not evil— and live! You talk about God , the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen. 15 Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square. Maybe God , the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

turn: Amos 5:11, Amos 5:12, Amos 6:12, Deuteronomy 29:18, Isaiah 1:23, Isaiah 5:7, Isaiah 10:1, Isaiah 59:13, Isaiah 59:14, Hosea 10:4, Habakkuk 1:12-14

leave: Psalms 36:3, Psalms 125:5, Ezekiel 3:20, Ezekiel 18:24, Ezekiel 33:12, Ezekiel 33:13, Ezekiel 33:18, Zephaniah 1:6

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 24:17 - pervert Psalms 147:8 - prepareth Proverbs 16:10 - transgresseth Proverbs 17:15 - that justifieth Amos 5:24 - let Habakkuk 1:4 - for John 8:15 - judge Acts 23:3 - for Revelation 8:11 - Wormwood

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood,.... This seems to be spoken to kings and judges, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe; in whose hands is the administration of justice, and who often pervert it, as these did here addressed and complained of; that which was the most useful and salubrious, and so the most desirable to the commonwealth, namely, just judgment, was changed into the reverse, what was as bitter and as disagreeable as wormwood; or "hemlock", as it might be rendered, and as it is in Amos 6:12; even injustice:

and leave off righteousness in the earth; leave off doing it among men: or rather, "leave [it] on the earth" c; who cast it down to the ground, trampled upon it, and there left it; which is expressive not only of their neglect, but of their contempt of it; see Daniel 8:12.

c הניחו "in terram prosterunt", Piscator; "justitiam in terram reliquerunt, i.e. humi prosternitis et deseritis", Mercerus; "collocantes humi", Junius & Tremellius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye who turn - Those whom he calls to seek God, were people filled with all injustice, who turned the sweetness of justice into the bitterness of wormwood . Moses had used “gall” and “wormwood” as a proverb; “lest there be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him” Deuteronomy 29:18, Deuteronomy 29:20. The word of Amos would remind them of the word of Moses.

And leave off righteousness in the earth - Better, “and set righteousness to rest on the ground” . They dethroned righteousness, the representative and vice-gerent of God, and made it rest on the ground. The “little horn,” Daniel says, should “cast truth to the ground” Daniel 8:12. These seem to have blended outrage with insult, as when “the Lord our Righteousness” Jeremiah 23:6 took our flesh, “they put on Him” the “scarlet robe, and the crown of thorns” upon His Head, and bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him,” and then “crucified Him.” They “deposed” her, “set her down,” it may be, with a mock make-believe deference, as people now-a-days, in civil terms, depose God, ignoring Him and His right over them. They set her on the ground and so left her, the image of God. This they did, not in one way only, but in all the ways in which they could. He does not limit it to the “righteousness” shown in doing justice. It includes all transactions between man and man, in which right enters, all buying and selling, all equity, all giving to another his due. All the bands of society were dissolved, and righteousness was placed on the ground, to be trampled on by all in all things.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 5:7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood — Who pervert judgment; causing him who obtains his suit to mourn sorely over the expenses he has incurred in gaining his right.


 
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