Amos 2:8 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge - the outer garment, which Exodus 22:25-27 ordered to be restored to the poor man before sunset, as being his only covering. х Bªgaadiym (H899), chiefly used of the outside cloak wrapped over the long loose shirt, kªtonet (H3801)]. The Hebrew is from a root х baagad (H898)] to be faithless: clothing having been first used when man became false to his God. It aggravated the crime, that they lay on these clothes in an idol temple. They blended many sins in one, as if they sought novelty and especial enormity in sin.

By every altar - they partook in a recumbent posture of the idolatrous feasts; the ancients being in the habit of reclining at full length in eating, the upper part of the body resting on the left elbow, not sitting as we do.

And they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god - i:e., wine bought with the money of those whom they unjustly fined. So the margin, correctly. Pusey remarks, 'In five (Hebrew) words he condemns their luxury, oppression, perversion of justice, cruelty, profaneness, unreal service of God, and real apostasy. What hard-heartedness to the willfully forgotten poor is compensated by a little church-going!'

Amos 2:8

8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemnedb in the house of their god.