Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 5:11

"Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him 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 the wine thereof." — Amos 5:11 (ASV)

Since therefore (as they rejected reproof, he pronounces the sentence of God upon them), as your treading is upon the poor. This expresses more habitual trampling on the poor than if he had said, "you tread upon the poor." They were continually trampling on those who were already of low and depressed condition.

And you take from him burdens of wheat, presents of wheat. The word always signifies presents, voluntary or involuntary, what was carried and offered to anyone. They received "wheat" from the poor, cleansed and winnowed, and sold the refuse (Amos 8:6), requiring what it was wrong to receive, and selling what it was at least disgraceful not to give. God had expressly forbidden to lend food for interest (Leviticus 25:37; Deuteronomy 23:19). It may be that, in order to evade the law, the interest was called "a present."

You have built houses of hewn stone - The houses of Israel were, perhaps most commonly, built of brick dried in the sun only. At least, houses built of hewn stone, like most of ours, are proverbially contrasted with them, as the more solid with the more ordinary building. The white bricks are fallen down, and we will build with hewn stones (Isaiah 9:10). And Ezekiel is commanded to dig through the wall of his house (Ezekiel 12:5, 7). Houses of stone there were, as appears from the directions concerning the unhealthy accretions, called the leprosy of the house (Leviticus 14:34–48).

It may be, however, that their houses of "hewn stone", had a smoothed surface, like our "ashlar". Anyhow, the sin of luxury is not simply measured by the things themselves, but by their relation to ourselves and our condition also; and wrong is not estimated by the extent of the gain and loss of the two parties only, but by the injury inflicted.

These men, who built houses luxurious for them, had wrung their living from the poor, just as those do who beat down the wages of the poor. Therefore, they were not to take possession of what was their own; as Ahab, who by murder possessed himself of Naboth’s vineyard, forfeited his throne and his life.

God, in the law, provided for the feeling that desires to enter into the fruit of a man’s toil. When they were to go to war, they were to proclaim, "What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard and hath not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it" (Deuteronomy 20:5–6).

Now God reversed all this and withdrew the tender love by which He had provided it. The words, from their proverbial character, express a principle of God’s judgments: that wrong dealing, by which a man would secure himself or enlarge his inheritance, destroys both.

Who was poorer than our Lord, bared of all upon the Cross, of whom it had been written, They persecuted the poor helpless man, that they might slay him who was vexed at the heart (Psalms 109:15), and of whom the Jews said, Come let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours? (Matthew 21:38).

They killed Him, they said, lest the Romans take away our place and nation (John 11:48). The vineyard was taken from them; their "place" destroyed, their "nation" dispersed.