Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading isle upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat - burdensome taxes, levied in kind from the wheat of the needy to pamper the lusts of the great (Henderson). Or wheat advanced in time of scarcity, and exacted again at a burdensome interest (Rabbi Salomon).
Ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them - according to the original prophecy of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:30; Deuteronomy 28:38; Deuteronomy 28:38). The converse shall be true in restored Israel (Amos 9:14; Isaiah 65:21-22, "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat"). Ordinarily their houses were built of sun-dried bricks (Isaiah 9:10; Ezekiel 12:5; Ezekiel 12:7).