Amos 5:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood Or into hemlock, as the word here used is translated, Amos 6:12. Ye judges and rulers that pervert the law that was designed to protect innocence, and under colour of it exercise the greatest oppression. True or just judgment is sweet or pleasing; corrupt judgment, mere bitterness. And leave off righteousness That is, leave off to practise it, or make it to cease in your courts of judicature. Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion Concerning these constellations see notes on Job 9:9; and Job 38:31. These and the other constellations were commonly thought to have great influence upon the seasons; and therefore their rising and setting used to be particularly taken notice of by husbandmen and shepherds; whose employments lying abroad, made them more observant of the appearances of the heavenly bodies. So this was a dispensation of providence, which it was very suitable for one of Amos's profession to mention. “But in Arabia and the neighbouring countries, to this present day, not only the shepherds, but the men in general, the women and children, know the names of the stars. Sanctius assures us, that the shepherds in Spain know perfectly well the stars of Ursa Major, Orion, the Pleiades, &c., and that they generally measure the time of night by the course of these stars.” Dodd. And turneth the shadow of death into the morning The greatest adversity into as great prosperity; and maketh the day dark with night Changes prosperity into adversity: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them upon the earth Who commandeth the seas and the rivers to overflow the earth in great inundations; or rather, commands the vapours to ascend from the sea, turns them into rain, and then pours it from the clouds, to render the earth fruitful. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong Who giveth strength to him that hath been conquered and spoiled, and enables him to subdue his conquerors, and become master even of the strongest places. This was very properly mentioned here as one act of God's great power, because it implied, that the deplorable state of the Israelitish affairs might be retrieved if they sought to him.