Amos 8:5
Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,
Open Amos 8:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- dicentes : Quando transibit mensis, et venundabimus merces ? et sabbatum, et aperiemus frumentum, ut imminuamus mensuram, et augeamus siclum, et supponamus stateras dolosas,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- λέγοντες Πότε διελεύσεται ὁ μὴν καὶ ἐμπολήσομεν, καὶ τὰ σάββατα καὶ ἀνοίξομεν θησαυρὸν τοῦ ποιῆσαι μικρὸν μέτρον, καὶ τοῦ μεγαλῦναι στάθμιον καὶ ποιῆσαι ζυγὸν ἄδικον,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֵאמֹ֗ר מָתַ֞י יַעֲבֹ֤ר הַחֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ וְנַשְׁבִּ֣ירָה שֶּׁ֔בֶר וְהַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וְנִפְתְּחָה בָּ֑ר לְהַקְטִ֤ין אֵיפָה֙ וּלְהַגְדִּ֣יל שֶׁ֔קֶל וּלְעַוֵּ֖ת מֹאזְנֵ֥י מִרְמָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Month: the first day was observed as a festival, Numbers x. 10. (Haydock)
At the expiration of the month usurers demanded their money. (Horace, i. sat. 3.; Aristophanes, Nub. ii. 1.)
Corn, to sell after the sabbatical year, when it was dearest. Sabbath also denotes all "festivals." These misers think that there are too many.
Sicle. Having a large measure to buy, and a small one to sell again, Deuteronomy xxv. 13., and Proverbs xx. 10.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
19. What shall be said to this by those of us who are buyers and sellers of corn, and watch the hardships of the seasons, in order to grow prosperous, and luxuriate in the misfor tunes of others, and acquire, not, like Joseph, the property of the Egyptians, as a part of a wide policy, (for he could both collect and supply corn duly, as he also could foresee the famine, and provide against it afar off,) but the property of their fellow countrymen in an illegal manner, for they say, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell, and the sabbaths, that we may open our stores?” And they corrupt justice with divers measures and balances, and draw upon themselves the ephah of lead. …