John Gill Commentary Amos 8:4

"Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail," — Amos 8:4 (ASV)

Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy
Like a man that pants after a draught of water when thirsty; and, when he has got it, greedily swallows it down at one gulp; so these rich men swallowed up the poor, their labours, gains, and profits, and persons too; got all into their own hands, and made them bondsmen and slaves to them; see (Amos 2:7); these are called upon to hear this dreadful calamity threatened, and to consider what then would become of them and their ill gotten riches; and suggesting, that their oppression of the needy was one cause of this destruction of the land:

even to make the poor of the land to fail; or "cease" ^F1; to die for want of the necessaries of life, being obliged to such hard labour; so unmercifully used, their faces ground, and pinched with necessity; and so sadly paid for their work, that they could not live by it.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (twbvl) "ad cessare faciendum", Mercerus; "et facitis cessare", Munster, Drusius.