Amos 8:5

Saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?.... The first day of every month, on which it was forbid to sell any thing, or do any worldly business, being appointed and used for

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

When will the new moon be gone? ye that could wish there were nothing to interrupt your marketing, your irreligious impatience, and your eagerness after the world, look on solemn times of Divine worship as very burdensome; such was the first day of every month, and the weekly sabbath. That we may sell corn: no servile work might be done on new moons, no markets kept, or corn brought forth publicly to be sold. And the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? they were also bound very religiously to observe the sabbath, and on that day they might not buy or sell; now they are weary of the sabbath, as of the new moon, and on the same account wish it over: here was irreligious gaping after gain. Making the ephah small; the ephah was a measure for dry things, and contained about half a bushel and one pottle English measure. Now these covetous corn-merchants measured the corn they sold by an ephah that was too little, the poor buyer had not his due. And the shekel great: they weighed the money which they received, and these rich men had no more pity and justice, than to make their shekel weight greater than the standard; so the poor were twice oppressed in the same way, had less than was their right, and paid more than they ought to pay; and thus they undid the poor, and ate him up. And falsifying the balances by deceit; deceitfully pervert the balances, that the money or shekel weighed, though of full weight, yet appeared too light on the balance, and they who paid it were forced to add more silver to it.

Amos 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?Ver. 5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, &c.] "O, what a weariness it is! and ye have snuffed at it," Malachi 1:13. See the note there. This ye have said, or thought at least; and God knoweth the language of your hearts. He presseth upon no man; neither will he accept that service that is pressed out of people, as verjuice out of a crab. All his saints are free hearted, Psalms 110:3, all his soldiers volunteers; they welcome the sabbath, as that holy man did, who went forth to meet and salute it with Veni sponsa mea, Come, my sweet spouse, I have dearly longed for thee. The sabbath they call Desiderium dierum a day of delight. They also pass it over with singular delight, Isaiah 58:13, walking into Christ’ s garden of spiritual duties, whereof there is so great variety for the good soul to breathe itself in and not be sated; and then are taken into Christ’ s wine cellar, and (after a holy manner) inebriated with Divine consolations, Son 2:4-5 2 Corinthians 1:5, such as the cock on the dunghill knows not, such as pass all carnal men’ s understanding. They find no more relish in holy days and duties than they do in the white of an egg or in a dry chip; the work they do at such times, for fashion-sake or fear of law, &c., is dead work, as the apostle calleth it; they sit in the stocks when they are at prayers, and come out of the church when the tedious sermon runs somewhat beyond the hour, as prisoners do out of a jail, &c.; they cannot tell how to wear out the sabbath, which therefore they wish over, and constantly violate, either by corporal labour or else (which is as bad, or worse) by spiritual idleness. Full ill would these men, addere de profano ad sacrum (as the Jews say we should do), pronouncing those happy that begin the sabbath with those of Tiberias, and end it with those of Tsepphore; the former began it sooner than others, the latter continued it longer (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud.). Full ill would they have liked our King Edgar’ s law, that Sunday should be solemnized from Saturday, nine o’ clock, till Monday morning. Full loth would these men be to beg David’ s office out of his hand, of being a doorkeeper in God’ s house; that is, to be first in and last out. And what would they do to keep an everlasting sabbath in heaven that are so troubled and even tired out with so short an attendance on the Lord’ s day; not without a world of wilful distractions, such as spoil and corrupt their performances, so that they stink in the nostrils of the Almighty?

(5) When . . . gone.—They desired that the festivals of the New Moon and Sabbath should be over, when they might not only return to their secular employments, but pursue their search for ill-gotten gains—a proof that these festivals were observed in the northern nation, even if they were disliked. Set forth wheat.—The original signifies the opening of the sacks, or granaries, where the wheat was stored. The greedy mercantile class is referred to. The ephah, which was a dry measure (= three English pecks), was “made small,” so that a smaller quantity might be sold. The shekel was the weight against which the precious metal was weighed. If this were fraudulently augmented, more of the gold or silver than was due was demanded for the impoverished ephah. Falsifying the balances . . .—More accurately, falsifying the deceitful balances, so that the very symbol of justice became the implement of committing injustice. This is frequently condemned in the Law and Prophets (Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:15; Proverbs 11:1; Micah 6:11).

Verse 5. When will the new moon be gone] This was kept as a kind of holy day, not by Divine command, but by custom. The Sabbath was strictly holy; and yet so covetous were they that they grudged to give to God and their own souls this seventh portion of time! But bad and execrable as they were, they neither set forth their corn, nor their wheat, nor any other kind of merchandise, on the Sabbath. They were saints then, when compared to multitudes called Christians, who keep their shops either partially or entirely open on the Lord's day, and buy and sell without any scruples of conscience. Conscience! alas! they have none; it is seared as with a hot iron. The strong man armed, in them, is quiet, for all his goods are in peace. Making the ephah small, and the shekel great] Giving short measure, and taking full price; or, buying with a heavy weight, and selling with one that was light. Falsifying the balances] Having one scale light, and the other weighty; one end of the beam long, and the other short. A few months ago I detected a knave with such balances; with a slip of his finger along the beam he altered the centre, which made three ounces short weight in every pound. He did it so dexterously, that though I knew he was cheating, or, as the prophet expresses it, was falsifying the balances by deceit, it was some time before I could detect the fraud, and not till I had been several times cheated by this accomplished knave. So we find that though the knaves of ancient Israel are dead, they have left their successors behind them.

5. When will the new moon be gone?] The new moon, the first of the month, was observed as a popular holiday (2 Kings 4:23; cf. 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 20:24), and marked by religious services Isaiah 1:13-14; Hosea 2:11; and often in later writings: cf. Numbers 28:11-15). From the present passage, it is apparent that, like the sabbath, it was a day on which trade was suspended, and which accordingly was viewed by the grasping Israelitish merchants with impatience, on account of the interruption which it occasioned in their unjust practices. making the ephah small &c.] The ephah by which they sold was of short measure, while the shekel, by which the money to be paid by the purchaser was weighed, was unduly heavy. Dr Chaplin found in 1890, on the site of the ancient Samaria, a weight (now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) inscribed (if ùì be rightly explained as an abbreviation for ùìí) “a quarter of full weight.” This weight weighs 39.2 grains, which would give a shekel of 156.8 (or rather more, if something be allowed for wearing). The weight of the so-called ‘light’ shekel (the ‘heavy’ shekel was twice as much) was probably 130–135 grains: whence W. R. Smith very ingeniously conjectured (P.E.F.Qu.St[191], 1894, p. 229) that the weight in question was a heavy quarter-shekel, of the kind alluded to here by Amos. [191] .E.F.Qu.St. … Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statements.falsifying the balances of deceit] i.e. tampering with the balances by which the money received by them was weighed, and so gaining a third unjust advantage over the purchaser. See, in condemnation of such commercial dishonesty, Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-15 (“Thou shalt not have in thy bag a weight and a weight, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house an ephah and an ephah, a great and a small,” &c.); Proverbs 20:10 (“A weight and a weight, an ephah and an ephah, both of them alike are Jehovah’s abomination”); Ezekiel 45:9-10. The ephah was probably equal to about eight gallons.

When will the new moon be gone? - They kept their festivals, though weary and impatient for their close. They kept sabbath and festival with their bodies, not with their minds.

4-7. The greedy merchants of Israel. Hear this — See on Amos 3:1. Swallow up the needy — Literally, pant after (Amos 2:7). Here also Jerome renders ‘crush.” The verb is explained in the next clause.