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Israel is judged for its lack of social justice. The poor and needy are oppressed, denied justice in the courts (Amos 5:7, 10, 12, 15) and forced into slavery (Amos 2:6–7; 8:6). The goods of the poor are confiscated (Amos 5:11), and their garments taken in pledge, in direct violation of Exodus 22:25–7 (Amos 2:8). Trade is dishonest, with prices inflated and crooked weights and measures used (Amos 8:5).
Although they are never explicitly quoted, Amos was clearly calling Israel back to God’s covenant standards of righteousness. They are the criteria against which Israel’s conduct is judged to have fallen short.
God’s fury against Israel is all the greater because of what he has done for them: rescuing them from Egypt (Amos 2:10), destroying the Amorites (Amos 2:9), giving them prophets and Nazirites to remind them of the need for holiness (Amos 2:11), and choosing them as his people (Amos 3:2). Amos’s uncomfortable message is that ‘Israel’s election did not give her a monopoly on divine favour, but called her to special moral responsibility; she was called to be “a holy people unto Yahweh…”’ [2] This meant reflecting God’s character, a character which was, in Amos’s understanding, defined by God’s justice.
Justice in the other prophets
Although they each have their distinct emphases, the other eighth-century prophets Hosea (Hosea 5:10; 8:11–13; 12:6–7), Micah (Micah 3:8–12), and Isaiah (Isaiah 1:10–17) all affirm the same truth: judgement is coming, because of ‘the injustice and inhumanity of the great and the powerful towards the weak, poor and helpless.’ [3]
Later, Jeremiah prophesied when Judah was about to be invaded and Jerusalem was about to fall. What was God’s message to their rulers? ‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done…’ (Jeremiah 21:12).
Jeremiah made plain just how highly God rates justice. He compared the sons of Josiah with their father and declared that the survival of the royal dynasty was dependent on the justice of the king’s reign. Maintaining justice was a key part of the king’s covenant obligations, and failing to uphold justice was a sin on a par with idolatry (Jeremiah 22:2–5, 9).
Whereas Josiah’s sons constructed their palaces using forced labour, their father was commended, not for his religious, reforming zeal but because ‘He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.’ (Jeremiah 22:15–16). Instead of following their father, his sons set their hearts ‘only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion’. (Jeremiah 22:17).
Ezekiel, writing at around the same time, offers a similar bleak assessment of the actions of the ruling class in Judah as a whole (Ezekiel 22:1–16), listing a catalogue of abuses with regard to the family, social justice, the temple cult, pagan worship, sexual matters, the legal system and economic justice. In all these areas, which cover the whole of social, economic and religious life, the people had violated the covenant and had forgotten the Lord (Ezekiel 22:12; cf. Deuteronomy 8:11, 19).
