Amos 2 | "They Sold the Righteous for Silver and the Poor for the Price of Shoes"

After hearing prophecies of doom against the nations, the Israelites feel satisfied with themselves, until the shocking twist comes – you are no different. This is particularly surprising given the historical context: The economic and security conditions in the kingdoms of Israel and Yehuda are at their best since the days of Shlomo, and naturally, both kingdoms assume that they are not only wealthy and powerful but also righteous and close to God.

This assumption makes sense: if one believes in divine reward and punishment, then the simplest interpretation of prosperity is that God must love you. Yehuda and Israel are thriving — surely, they must be exceptionally righteous. Yeshayahu in Yehuda (Chapters 2–6) and Amos in Israel attempt to shatter this illusion. Yes, things are good now, but unless they change course — and quickly — the wheel will turn against them, and disaster will come. They may be enjoying prosperity, but from within this abundance, they are only multiplying wrongdoing.

Amos highlights sins of social injustice. He turns to a society of affluence where the rich oppress and exploit those less fortunate. Consider the opening verse of his rebuke: "They sold the righteous for silver and the poor for the price of shoes." (2:6) Most commentators explain that this refers to judges who accept bribes — so insignificant as a pair of shoes — thereby betraying the righteous and the poor. Another interpretation is that it denounces the slave traders themselves or the shoe merchants who, for a pittance, enslave the poor. Later in the book, we see a broader picture: "We can open the store house, so we can diminish the weight of an epha but enlarge the shekel, skew false scales, sell the needy for silver and the poor for the price of shoes? Let us sell chaff and grain.’" (Amos 8:5–6) This is about people who falsify weights and measures. By manipulating the scales, they push the poor further into poverty, driving them into debt until they are forced to sell themselves into slavery. The prophet attributes the sin — the selling of the poor into slavery — to the original person who drove them to such a state. In truth, he places the blame on the entire society that enables a corrupt economic system to exist within it.

As Amos rebukes the people, he reminds them of God's kindness and how they have repaid Him with betrayal. One of these kindnesses was the expulsion of the Amorites before the Israelites. This refers to the expulsion of all the Canaanite nations during the settlement of the land, but the wording also creates a deliberate linguistic parallel with Arameans. Until the generation of Yerovam son of Yoash, the Aramean enemy ruled over the kingdom of Israel, which had been unusually weak and impoverished. God was kind with them, and they defeated the Arameans. But now, instead of the Arameans reducing the Israelites like “dust to be trampled” (Kings II 13:7), it is the Israelites themselves who “trample the dust of the earth atop the heads of the poor” (2:7) toward their own brothers.