Bible Strands
Amos 6:12
“Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Amos addresses the wealthy leadership of Israel in the days before their impending collapse. He speaks immediately after declaring that both the great and small houses will be shattered.
The words — יַחֲר֖וֹשׁ (ya.cha.Ro.osh) translates literally as "does anyone plow," anchoring the rhetorical question. הֲפַכְתֶּ֤ם (ha.fakh.Tem) means "you have turned," marking the deliberate inversion of their social order.
The thread — The motif of perverted justice appears in Amos 5:7, Hosea 10:4, and Isaiah 59:13. These passages consistently link moral inversion with impending judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that the community's corruption is willful, not accidental. It requires the reader to confront how systemic injustice replaces established righteousness.
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
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Cross-references
- Amos 5:7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
- Hosea 10:4 They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
- Isaiah 59:13 rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
- 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.
- 1 Kings 21:7 But his wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful, for I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
- Psalms 94:20 Can a corrupt throne be Your ally—one devising mischief by decree?
- Isaiah 48:4 For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
- Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Jeremiah 6:29 The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged.
- Hosea 10:13 You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,