John Calvin Commentary Amos 5:12

"For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins-ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate [from their right]." — Amos 5:12 (ASV)

The Prophet introduces God here as the speaker, so that the threatening might be more authoritative: for we know, as has been stated before, that the Prophets were despised by haughty men. But when God Himself appeared, as it were, before them, it would have been strange if fear did not take hold of them. They had at least no excuse for their presumption if God’s name did not touch their hearts and humble them.

I know, he says, your iniquities; as if he said, “You do not think yourselves bound to render an account to men, as probably no such account will be rendered by you. But how, do you think, will you be able to escape my tribunal? For I am your judge, and the government is mine. However ferociously you now tread on the poor and evasively contend with me, your crimes must necessarily be judged by me. I know your crimes.”

And as the rich by their splendor covered every wickedness—particularly the magistrates, who were adorned with a public office—God says that their depravity was fully known to Him. It is as if He said, “Contend as much as you please, still your iniquities are sufficiently apparent to me; you will gain nothing by your subtle evasions.”

Moreover, He reprimands them not merely for slight offenses, but says that they were wholly unbearable. When something is done wrong by the highest power, indulgence is commonly granted, for nothing is more difficult than for one who bears such a great and heavy burden to maintain such integrity as to be free from all blame. But the Lord shows here that they were not merely slightly culpable, but that their crimes were so grievous and flagrant that they could not be tolerated. So now we understand the Prophet's purpose.

Therefore, when their own greatness dazzles the eyes of proud men, let us understand that they cannot deprive God of His right. For though He may not judge them today, He will yet shortly ascend His tribunal. And He reminds them that those pompous displays, by which they cover their many crimes, are only shadows that will vanish. This is what the Prophet means.

Then he calls them, The oppressors of the just. He enumerates here some particulars, regarding which the iniquity of the judges whom he now addresses might be, as it were, perceived to be gross and abominable. You oppress, he says, the just; this was one thing. Then follows another: They take כפר, capher, expiation, or, the price of redemption.

The Prophet, I have no doubt, meant to point out here something different from the former crime. Though interpreters blend these two things, I still think them to be wholly different. For these mercenary judges made an agreement with the wicked whenever any homicide or other violence was committed. In short, whenever anyone implicated himself in any grievous sin, they saw that prey was taken and anxiously longed for it; they wished murders to be committed daily so that they might acquire gain.

Since, then, these judges were so intent on bribery, the Prophet accuses them of being takers of ransom. They ought to have punished crimes, but this they did not do. Instead, they let the wicked go unpunished. They spared murderers, adulterers, robbers, and sorcerers—not, indeed, without rewards, for these criminals brought the price of redemption and departed as if they were innocent.

We now perceive what the Prophet means here; and it would be well if this crime were not so common. But in our day, the cruelty of many judges appears especially in this: they hunt for crimes for the sake of gain, which seems, as it were, to be a ransom. For this is the proper meaning of the word כפר, capher. Since this evil commonly prevails, then, it is no wonder that the Prophet, while reprimanding the corruptions of his time, says that judges took a ransom.

Then he adds, The poor they turn aside from judgment in the gate. This is the third crime. The Prophet complains that they deprived miserable men of their right because they could not bring as large a bribe as the rich, even though, relying on the goodness of their cause, they thought themselves sure of victory.

The Prophet complains that they were disappointed in their hope, and their right was denied them in the gate—that is, in the court of justice. For we know that it was an ancient custom for judges to sit in the gates and there to administer justice. And for this reason Amos mentions the gate here twice. What he complains of was all the more disgraceful, inasmuch as the judicial court was, as it were, a sacred asylum to which injured men resorted so that they might have their wrongs redressed. When this became a den of robbers, what more remained for them?

So we now see that the Prophet is not speaking here of the common people, but that he mainly directs his reproofs against the rulers. Let us go on—