John Calvin Commentary Amos 2:8

"and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined." — Amos 2:8 (ASV)

Here the Prophet again denounces the people’s avarice, addressing his message especially to the leaders; for what he mentions could not have been done by the common people, as the lower and humbler classes could not make feasts using spoils gained from legal judgments. The Prophet then undoubtedly condemns here the luxury and rapacity of men in high stations. They lie down, he says, on pledged clothes near every altar. God had forbidden in His law to take from a poor man a pledge which he needed for the support of life and daily use (Exodus 22:26). For instance, the law prohibited taking from a poor man his cloak or his coat, or taking the covering of his bed, or anything else he needed. But the Prophet now accuses the Israelites of taking away pledges and clothes without any distinction, and lying down on them near their altars. This practice belonged to the rich.

Then follows another clause, which, strictly speaking, must be restricted to the judges and governors: They have drunk the wine of the condemned in the house, or in the temple, of their God. This may also be understood of the rich, who were accustomed to indulge in luxury by means of ill-gotten spoils, for they sued without cause. When they gained judgment in their favor, they thought it lawful to live more sumptuously. This expression of the Prophet may therefore be extended to any of the rich. But he seems here to condemn more specifically the cruelty and rapacity of the judges. We now perceive then what the Prophet had in view by saying that they lay down on pledged garments.

He then says that they drank wine derived from fines, which had been imposed on the condemned. But this added circumstance ought to be observed: that they lay down near altars and drank in the very temple. For the Prophet here mocks the gross superstition of the Israelites, who thought that they were fulfilling their duty to God, provided they came to the temple and offered sacrifices at the altar.

Thus, indeed, hypocrites are accustomed to appease God, as if someone were playing with a child using puppets. This wickedness has been very common in all ages, and the Prophet here charges it against the Israelites: they dared brazenly to enter the temple, and there to bring the pledged garments, and to feast on their spoils.

Hypocrites always make God’s temple a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13), for they think that all things are lawful for them, provided they give the appearance, by external worship, of being devoted to God. Since, then, the Israelites expected to act with impunity and felt free to sin because they performed religious ceremonies, the Prophet here sharply reproves them. They even dared to make God a witness of their cruelty by bringing pledged garments and by blending their spoils with their sacrifices, as though God were a partner with robbers.

Therefore we see that rapacity and avarice are not the only things condemned here by the Prophet, but that the gross superstition of the Israelites is also reprobated. They thought that there would be no punishment for them, though they plundered and robbed the poor, provided they reserved a part of the spoil for God, as though a sacrifice from what had been unjustly obtained were not an abomination to Him.

But it may be asked: Why does the Prophet condemn the Israelites in this way, since they had no sacred temple? We also know (as it has been stated elsewhere) that the temples in which they thought they worshipped God were filthy brothels, full of all obscenity. How is it, then, that the Prophet now so sharply denounces them for mingling their spoils with their impure sacrifices?

To this the answer is that he took into account their perspective and derided the dullness of their minds, because they thus childishly trifled with the God whom they imagined for themselves. We say the same today to the Papists: that they blend profane with sacred things when they prostitute their masses, and also when they trifle with God in their ceremonies.

It is certain that whatever the Papists do is an abomination, for their entire religion is adulterated. Yet they do not cease to wrong God, whose name they claim to profess. Such also were the Israelites at that time: though they still professed to worship God, they were nevertheless sacrilegious. Though they offered sacrifices to the calves in Dan and in Bethel, they still reproached God, for they continually abused His name. This, then, is the crime the Prophet now condemns in them. But what I have said must be remembered: this blind assurance is censured in the Israelites, that they thought spoils to be lawful provided they professed to worship God. But they thus made their crime twice as bad, as we have said, for they tried to make God the associate of robbers, by mingling their pollutions with their sacrifices. Let us proceed.