602. Idolatrous Customs

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 11
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Amos 2:88And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. (Amos 2:8). They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
Henderson’s translation gives the sense of the passage more clearly than the authorized version. He renders it: “They stretch themselves upon pledged garments close to every altar, and drink the wine of the amerced in the house of their gods.” The text refers to the unjust habits and to the idolatrous practices of the backslidden Israelites, especially of those in authority. They took money which they had exacted by the imposition of fines, which were in all probability fixed at an amount higher than justice demanded, and with it purchased wine, which is therefore called “the wine of the amerced.” This wine they drank in heathen temples. In addition to this they took from the poor as a pledge for debts their outer garments, which were their covering through the night as well as during the day. Instead of returning these at sundown, as the law required (Deut. 24:1212And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: (Deuteronomy 24:12); see also the note on that text, #205) they kept them all night, and stretched themselves upon them in the heathen temples. This stretching may refer either to the reclining at the idolatrous feasts, or to the custom, sometimes practiced among the heathen, of sleeping near the altars of their gods, that they might obtain communications in dreams.
Keil translates the verse: “And they stretch themselves upon pawned clothes by every altar, and they drink the wine of the punished in the house of their God.” He does not believe that the prophet refers to feasts in idolatrous temples, but in drinking carousals which were held in the house of God. He says that “Amos had in his mind the sacred places in Bethel and Dan, in which the Israelites worshiped Jehovah as their God under the symbol of an ox, (calf)” (Commentary in loco).