Amos 2, Israel

6. Israel is next in line for judgment.

Its sin? "They sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals."

I am not sure what this refers to. If you sell someone, it sounds like you are selling that person to be someone else's slave. It sounds as if they are not even selling these people for much in return--for a pair of sandals. That shows a low respect for the value of human life.

7. Other sins:

They "pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless." It sounds here as if they are harming those who are weaker than themselves in order to get from them the little they have.

They "turn aside the way of the humble." That sounds like a different way of saying the same thing. These people take advantage of the helpless and the humble--that is, those who are weaker than themselves.

The last sin is a sexual one: "a man and his father resort to the same girl in order to profane My holy name." This sounds like a prostitute or a woman of low repute.

8. More sins:

"On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar."

The first part has to do with taking a garment from a debtor as a guarantee that the debt will be paid--a poor debtor obviously. The creditor is not supposed to keep the garment overnight, because the debtor will get cold.

The second part sounds like it has to do with worshiping a false god. So I suppose this is combining two things that they are not supposed to be doing into one act.

Also: "in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined."

The first of this explicitly has to do with worshiping another God than the LORD. (In other words, perhaps, the God that Israel is worshiping--outside of Jerusalem--is not the LORD.)

The second part--I'm not sure what it means. Maybe these are government officials who confiscate wine from people and drink it themselves (?)