John Calvin Commentary Amos 2:7

"they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the [same] maiden, to profane my holy name:" — Amos 2:7 (ASV)

Here Amos charges them first with insatiable avarice; they panted for the heads of the poor on the dust of the earth. In my judgment, this passage is not well understood. שאף, shaph, means to pant and to breathe, and is often taken metaphorically to signify desire: hence some render the words, “They desire the heads of the poor to be in the dust of the earth;” that is, they are anxious to see the innocent cast down and prostrate on the ground. But there is no need for many words to refute this interpretation, for you see that it is strained. Others say that in their greed they cast down the miserable into the dust; they therefore think that a depraved greed is connected with violence, and they identify it as the lust for the deed itself.

But what need is there to resort to these extraneous meanings when the Prophet's words are in themselves plain and clear enough? He says that they panted for the heads of the poor on the ground; as though he had said that they were not content with casting down the miserable, but that they gaped anxiously until they had wholly destroyed them. There is then nothing to be changed or added in the Prophet’s words, which harmonize well together and mean that, through greed, they panted for the heads of the poor after the poor had been cast down and were laid prostrate in the dust. The very misery of the poor, whom they saw to be in their power and lying at their feet, ought to have satisfied them. But when such an insatiable greed still inflamed them, so that they panted for more punishment on the poor and the miserable, was it not a completely outrageous fury? We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning: He points out again what he has said in the former verse—that the Israelites were given to rapacity, avarice, and cruelty of every kind.

He adds at last, and the way of the miserable they pervert. He still inveighs against the judges, for it can hardly be consistent with what belongs to private individuals, but it properly pertains to judges to pervert justice and to violate equity for bribery, so that he who had the best cause became the loser because he brought no bribe sufficiently ample. We now see what accusation he alleged against the Israelites. But there follows another charge: that of indulgence in lusts.

Prayer:

Grant, almighty God, that as we see such grievous punishments formerly executed on unbelievers who had never tasted the pure knowledge of Your word, we may be warned by their example to abstain from all wickedness and to continue in pure obedience to Your word; and that, as You have made known to us that You hate all those superstitions and depravations by which we turn aside from Your word—O grant, that we may ever be attentive to that role which has been prescribed to us by You in the Law, as well as in the Prophets and in the Gospel, so that we may constantly abide in Your precepts, be wholly dependent on the words of Your mouth, and never turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, but glorify Your name, as You have commanded us, by offering to You a true, sincere, and spiritual worship, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

It follows, in the seventh verse, that the son and the father entered in into the same maid. The Prophet here charges the people of Israel with the unbridled lusts which prevailed then among them, which were promiscuous and even incestuous. It is, we know, a detestable monstrosity when a father and a son have relations with the same woman, for the common feeling of mankind abhors such wickedness.

But the Israelites were so addicted to their own lusts that the father and the son had the same woman in common, as indeed must happen when men allow themselves excessive indulgences. A prostitute will, indeed, readily admit a son and a father without any difference, for she has no shame, and no fear of God restrains abandoned women given up to filthiness. It therefore becomes a common thing for a father and a son to pollute themselves by incestuous relations. But it is no lessening of guilt before God when men, blinded by their lusts, make no difference and, without any discrimination and without any shame, follow their own sinful propensities. Whenever this happens, it certainly proves that there is no fear of God, and that even the common feeling of nature is extinct. Therefore, the Prophet now justly condemns this crime in the Israelites: that the father and the son went in to the same woman.

An amplification of this crime is also added—that they thus polluted the holy name of God. We indeed know that the people of Israel were chosen for this purpose: that the name of God might be called upon by them; and well known is that declaration, often repeated by Moses: Be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 11:44).

Therefore, the children of Israel could not defile themselves without at the same time polluting the name of God, which was engraved on them. God then complains here of this profanation, for the children of Israel not only contaminated themselves but also profaned whatever was sacred among them, inasmuch as the name of God was exposed to reproach when the people thus gave way to their filthy lusts. We now understand what the Prophet means.