28:21 To show partiality 1 is terrible, 2
for a person will transgress over the smallest piece of bread. 3
5:11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops 5
and exact a grain tax from them,
you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,
nor will you drink the wine from the fine 6 vineyards you planted. 7
5:12 Certainly 8 I am aware of 9 your many rebellious acts 10
and your numerous sins.
You 11 torment the innocent, you take bribes,
and you deny justice to 12 the needy at the city gate. 13
3:5 “I 14 will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, 15 and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, 16 who refuse to help 17 the immigrant 18 and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.
1 tn The construction uses the Hiphil infinitive הַכֵּר (hakken) as the subject of the sentence: “to have respect for [or, recognize] persons is not good” (e.g., 24:23; 18:5; Deut 1:17; Lev 19:15). Such favoritism is “not good”; instead, it is a miscarriage of justice and is to be avoided.
2 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure of speech known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
3 tn The meaning and connection of the line is not readily clear. It could be taken in one of two ways: (1) a person can steal even a small piece of bread if hungry, and so the court should show some compassion, or it should show no partiality even in such a pathetic case; (2) a person could be bribed for a very small price (a small piece of bread being the figure representing this). This second view harmonizes best with the law.
4 tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”
5 tn Traditionally, “because you trample on the poor” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The traditional view derives the verb from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”; cf. Isa. 14:25), but more likely it is cognate to an Akkadian verb meaning “to exact an agricultural tax” (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 172-73).
6 tn Or “lovely”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “pleasant”; NAB “choice”; NIV “lush.”
7 tn Heb “Houses of chiseled stone you built, but you will not live in them. Fine vineyards you planted, but you will not drink their wine.”
8 tn Or “for.”
9 tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).
10 tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.
11 tn Heb “Those who.”
12 tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).
13 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.
14 tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the
15 tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”
16 tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”
17 tn Heb “those who turn aside.”
18 tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”
19 tn Grk “What will you give to me, and I will betray him to you?”
20 tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”
21 tn Literally a series of verbs without connectives, “you have condemned, you have murdered…he does not resist.”