Bible Strands
Amos 5:11
Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Amos delivers God’s pronouncement to the northern kingdom of Israel, issuing immediate judgment following the description of leaders who despise truth-tellers and pervert justice at the city gates.
The words — The Hebrew בּוֹשְׁסוּ (bo.shesu) literally means "you trample," combined with מַשְׂאַת (mas'at), a "portion" or "tax," describing the seizure of grain from the דָּל (dal), the "poor."
The thread — The motif of constructing houses and planting vineyards only to be denied their use appears in Deuteronomy 28:30, Micah 6:15, and Zephaniah 1:13 as a consistent pattern of forfeited prosperity.
Why it lands — The text states that economic exploitation of the vulnerable directly causes the loss of the very stone houses and vineyards the exploiters built and planted.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:30 You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.
- Micah 6:15 You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.
- Zephaniah 1:13 Their wealth will be plundered and their houses laid waste. They will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but never drink their wine.
- James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?
- Haggai 1:6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
- Revelation 11:8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
- Amos 3:15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish, and the great houses will come to an end,” declares the LORD.
- Micah 2:2 They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
- Micah 3:1 Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?
- Deuteronomy 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.