John Calvin Commentary Amos 2:13

"Behold, I will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves." — Amos 2:13 (ASV)

The verb עיק, oik, in Hebrew is often transitive, and it is also a neuter. This passage then may allow for two interpretations. The first is that God was pressed down by the Israelites, as a wagon groans under too much weight. So God expostulates through Isaiah that He was weighed down by the Israelites: You constrain me, He says, to labor under your sins (Isaiah 1:14). The sense then, that God was pressed down by them, may be viewed as suitable. Yet the more accepted interpretation is this: Behold, I will bind you fast as a wagon is bound.

I am, however, more inclined to take the first meaning—that God here rebukes the Israelites because He had been pressed down by them. For תחתיכם, tacheticam, properly signifies “Under you,” which some translate, but in a forced manner, “In your place.” For when the verb is transitive, they say that תחתיכם, tacheticam, must be translated “In your place.” But this is unnatural and forced, and the whole passage flows better if we say, “I am bound fast under you, as though you were a wagon full of sheaves”; that is, “You are intolerable to me.”

For God carried that people on His shoulders; and when they loaded Him with the burden of iniquities, it is no wonder that He said that they were like a wagon—a wagon filled with many sheaves: “You are light as wind, but you are also very burdensome to me, and I am forced at last to shake you off:” and this He afterwards shows.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have not only redeemed us by the blood of Your only begotten Son, but also guide us during our earthly pilgrimage, and supply us with whatever is necessary—O grant, that we may not be unmindful of so many favors, and turn away from You and follow our sinful desires, but that we may continue bound to Your service, and never burden You with our sins, but submit ourselves willingly to You in true obedience, that by glorifying Your name we may carry You both in body and soul, until You at last gather us into that blessed kingdom which has been obtained for us by the blood of Your Son. Amen.