God’s Word Translation
Amos 5:7
7You, Israel, turn justice into poison and throw righteousness on the ground.
Amos 5:7 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
- New International Version (NIV)There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.
- English Standard Version (ESV)O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!
- New King James Version (NKJV)You who turn justice to wormwood, And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”
Context of Amos 5:7
5But don’t search ⌞for me⌟ at Bethel. Don’t go to Gilgal. Don’t travel to Beersheba. Gilgal will certainly go into exile. Bethel will come to nothing. 6Search for the Lord and live! If you don’t, he will spread like a fire through the house of Joseph and burn it down. Bethel will have no one to put it out. You, Israel, turn justice into poison and throw righteousness on the ground. 8God made the ⌞constellations⌟ Pleiades and Orion. He turns deep darkness into dawn. He turns day into night. He calls for water from the sea to pour it over the face of the earth. His name is the Lord. 9He destroys strongholds and ruins fortresses.
Read all of Amos 5Amos 5:7 word by word
הַהֹפְכִ֥ים לְלַעֲנָ֖ה מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה לָאָ֥רֶץ הִנִּֽיחוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Amos 5:7
- Amos 5:11You trample on the poor and take their wheat from them for taxes. That is why you build houses from hand-cut stones, but you will not live in them. You plant beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink their wine.
- Amos 6:12Do horses run on rocks? Does a farmer plow the sea with oxen? Yet, you have turned justice into something deadly and what is righteous into poison.
- Deuteronomy 29:18Make sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today who turns from the Lord our God to worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that no one among you is the source of this kind of bitter poison.
- Isaiah 1:23Your rulers are rebels, friends with thieves. They all love bribes and run after gifts. They never defend orphans. They don’t notice the widows’ pleas.
- Isaiah 5:7The vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight. He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter, for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.
- Isaiah 10:1How horrible it will be for those who make unjust laws and who make oppressive regulations.
- Isaiah 59:13We have rebelled and denied the Lord. We have turned away from our God. We have spoken about oppression and revolt. We have conceived and uttered lies in our hearts.
- Hosea 10:4They say many things. They lie when they take oaths, and they make promises they don’t intend to keep. That’s why lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
- Habakkuk 1:12Didn’t you exist before time began, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die! O Lord, you have appointed the Babylonians to bring judgment. O Rock, you have destined them to correct us.
- Psalms 36:3The words from his mouth are ⌞nothing but⌟ trouble and deception. He has stopped doing what is wise and good.
- Psalms 125:5But when people become crooked, the Lord will lead them away with troublemakers. Let there be peace in Israel!
- Ezekiel 3:20If righteous people turn from living the right way and do wrong, I will make them stumble, and they will die. If you don’t warn them, they will die because of their sin, and the right things they did will not be remembered. I will hold you responsible for their deaths.
- Ezekiel 18:24“But suppose a righteous person turns away from doing right and he does evil things. He does all the disgusting things that the wicked person did. Will he live? All the right things that he has done will not be remembered because of his unfaithfulness and because of his sin. He will die because of them.
- Ezekiel 33:12“Son of man, say to your people, ‘The right things that a righteous person has done will not save him when he rebels. The wicked things that a wicked person has done will not make him stumble when he turns from his wickedness. The righteous person will not live when he sins.’
- Zephaniah 1:6I will remove those who have turned away from following the Lord and those who no longer seek the Lord or ask him for help.”
Commentaries on Amos 5:7
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood - Who pervert judgment; causing him who obtains his suit to mourn sorely over the expenses he has incurred in gaining his right.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 7Ye who turn - Those whom he calls to seek God, were people filled with all injustice, who turned the sweetness of justice into the bitterness of wormwood. Moses had used “gall” and “wormwood” as a proverb; “lest there be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him” Deuteronomy…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-17Verses 7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-17Amos delivers three prophetic messages to Israel, criticizing their mistaken belief about being God's chosen people. The messages show a progression toward judgment.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 77. turn judgment to wormwood--that is, pervert it to most bitter wrong. As justice is sweet, so injustice is bitter to the injured. "Wormwood" is from a Hebrew root, to "execrate," on account of its noxious and bitter qualities. leave on righteousness in ... earth--Maurer translates, "cast righteousness to the ground," as in Is 28:2; Da 8:12.Read the comment
Topics related to Amos 5:7
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Amos 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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