Amos 4:1

4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan ¹  who live on Mount Samaria!

You ²  oppress the poor;

you crush the needy.

You say to your ³  husbands,

“Bring us more to drink!” ⁴ 

Isaiah 5:7-8

5:7 Indeed ⁵  Israel ⁶  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ⁷  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ⁸ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ⁹ 

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹⁰ 

those who also accumulate landed property ¹¹ 

until there is no land left, ¹² 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ¹³ 

Isaiah 59:13-14

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ¹⁴  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ¹⁵ 

59:14 Justice is driven back;

godliness ¹⁶  stands far off.

Indeed, ¹⁷  honesty stumbles in the city square

and morality is not even able to enter.

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ¹⁸ 

They defraud people of their homes, ¹⁹ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ²⁰ 

Micah 3:1-3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ²¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²²  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ²³ 

3:2 yet you ²⁴  hate what is good, ²⁵ 

and love what is evil. ²⁶ 

You flay my people’s skin ²⁷ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ²⁸ 

3:3 You ²⁹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ³⁰  –

like meat in a kettle.

James 2:6

2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ³¹  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

Revelation 11:8-10

11:8 Their ³²  corpses will lie in the street ³³  of the great city that is symbolically ³⁴  called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 11:9 For three and a half days those from every ³⁵  people, tribe, ³⁶  nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. ³⁷  11:10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

[4:1]  ¹ sn The expression cows of Bashan is used by the prophet to address the wealthy women of Samaria, who demand that their husbands satisfy their cravings. The derogatory language perhaps suggests that they, like the livestock of Bashan, were well fed, ironically in preparation for the coming slaughter. This phrase is sometimes cited to critique the book’s view of women.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “the ones who” (three times in this verse).

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “their.”

[4:1]  ⁴ sn Some commentators relate this scene to the description of the marzeah feast of 6:3-6, in which drinking played a prominent part (see the note at 6:6).

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  ¹² tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[59:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[59:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”

[59:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[3:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ²² tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ²³ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ³⁰ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[2:6]  ³¹ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.

[11:8]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:8]  ³³ tn The Greek word πλατεῖα (plateia) refers to a major (broad) street (L&N 1.103).

[11:8]  ³⁴ tn Grk “spiritually.”

[11:9]  ³⁵ tn The word “every” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the following list.

[11:9]  ³⁶ tn The Greek term καί (kai) has not been translated before this and the following items in the list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[11:9]  ³⁷ tn Or “to be buried.”