Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood - i:e. pervert it to most bitter wrong. As justice is sweet, so injustice is bitterness to the injured. Wormwood is from an Arabic root, to execrate, on account of its noxious and bitter qualities. Amos evidently has in view Deuteronomy 29:18, "Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood."
And leave off righteousness in the earth. Maurer translates х hiniychuw (H3240)], 'cast righteousness to the ground,' as in Isaiah 28:2, "shall cast down to the earth with the hand;" Daniel 8:12, "An host was given him (the blasphemous little horn), and it cast down the truth to the ground." Pusey translates, 'Set righteousness to rest on the ground.' They dethroned righteousness, the vicegerent and representative of God, and made it rest on the ground.