Amos 2:1-16

2:1 | Burning a dead person’s bones to lime was not just despicable but was considered a desecration.

2:4-16 | Judgement was harsher for Judah and Israel than the other nations because they had forsaken God’s revealed and written law. Their covenant relationship with God held them to a higher standard.

2:6-12 | Israel’s social injustice, materialism, self-centeredness, and willful ignorance of God were rampant. Notice that Israel’s list is the only one that names four crimes. The other nations’ lists are deliberately shortened, as if to say that Israel’s sins accumulated faster than their counterparts.

2:6 | God had declared that the poor be afforded the same privileges and care as the rest of society (5:11; 8:4-8; Prov. 22:2, 22-23; Isa. 10:2-3), yet the Israelites were selling their brothers and sisters into slavery.

2:7-8 | Amos uses hyperbole to demonstrate how serious the rich extorted the poor: to the point of desiring the dust on their heads. To this sin of greed he adds injustice (pervert the way of the humble), sexual sin, and the cruelty of not returning clothes to the poor so they could keep warm at night (Ex. 22:26-27).

2:9-12 | God’s faithful provision to Israel included military victory, deliverance, and spiritual leadership. As part of their consecration to the Lord, the Nazirites were to drink no wine (Num. 6:1-21). Yet Israel had spurned God’s messengers by tempting them to sin.

2:14-16 | The seven statements in these verses describe how completely devastated the Israelite army would be.