Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
Ver. 6. For three transgressions of Israel, &c.] The ten tribes come in last, lest they (with whom his main business lay, and to whom he will henceforth apply himself) should conceit themselves privileged, because for the present prospered; lest they should read or hear the menaces of God's mouth, as men do the old stories of foreign wars, that nothing concern them.
Because they sold the righteous for silver] Even God's own pasture sheep, that had golden fleeces, precious souls; these they made sale of for a little money, which ever was and still is a common medler, and drives the bargain and business to an upshot. Money, saith one, is the world's great monarch, and bears most mastery: whence it is that the Hebrew word, Adarcon, used for money, 1 Chronicles 29:7 Ezra 8:27, comes of Adar, strong, or mighty, and Con, to prepare; to show that a moneyed man is a mighty man, as this world goes. Unless we may say of money, as one doth wittily of Sardanapalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs: Sardanapalus, saith he, had a terrible name. Sar noteth a prince, Dan a judge, Niphal an overthrower, or conqueror; not otherwise applicable to him, but that his luxury was the overthrow of both sovereignty and judgment. So is money mighty and well prepared, but it is to blind the eyes of the wise, and to pervert the matters of the righteous, Deuteronomy 16:10, who because not so well underlaid as his adversary, lies long languishing many times at Hope's hospital; as that lame man did at the pool of Bethesda, but might not be sped, because (for want, belike, of stirring angels) he could get none to put him into the pool immediately after the angel had stirred it. That was a sad complaint made by the prophet Habakkuk, Amos 1:4, "Behold, the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth circumvent the righteous," viz. by his bribery and baseness, "therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." A judge is to retain the decency and gravity of the law; yea, of the law maker, with whom there is no iniquity, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts, 2 Chronicles 19:7. Nec prece, nec pretio, should be the magistrate's motto; he should be above all price or sale.
And the poor for a pair of shoes] For a cup of wine, Joel 3:3; for handfulls of barley, or pieces of bread, Ezekiel 3:19; for a thing of nothing, so base they were grown at length; a very small deal of gain would win them over. See Amos 8:6. At first, a little matter would not hire them; it must be silver, and a considerable sum too; as a harlot, that requires at first no small reward, but afterwards prostituteth herself quite cheaply to all comers. Sin seemeth modest and maidenly at first; but meddle not, for it soon woadeth an impudence in men's foreheads, and debaucheth them.