Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 6:12

"Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow [there] with oxen? that ye have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;" — Amos 6:12 (ASV)

The questions require a negative answer and show that Israel's conduct is as inconsistent and senseless as the supposition involved in the question: that horses should climb steep cliffs, or oxen plow in the rocky gorge. The conception of oppression, luxury, and pride being the forerunners of prosperity and peace is anomalous. The idea is that what should have ensured the stability of the state, the embodiment of its conscience, had been turned into a narcotic poison—the self-satisfaction of personal greed.

Rôsh, the Hebrew for “gall,” is a poisonous kind of plant with a bitter taste, resembling, according to Jerome, stalks of grass, and spreading so rapidly that it is difficult to eradicate. (the Speaker’s Commentary suggests “poppy-head.”) In Amos 5:7, the word expressed here by “hemlock” is translated “wormwood,” as in Jeremiah 9:15, Jeremiah 23:15, Deuteronomy 29:18, etc., a translation that should have been kept here. Gall and wormwood are constantly associated in Old Testament prophecy in this metaphorical sense.