Amos 8:6 - Exposition

Buy the poor for silver (comp. Amos 2:6 ). The probable meaning is that they so reduced the poor marl by their exactions and injustice, that he was compelled to pay his debt by selling himself into slavery (Le 25:39; Deuteronomy 15:12 ). For a pair of shoes. For the smallest debt they would deal in this harsh manner. The refuse; literally, that which fell through the sieve ; Septuagint, ἀπὸ παντὸς γεννήματος ἐμπορευσόμεθα , "We will trade in every kind of produce;" Vulgate, Quisquilias frumenti vendamus, "Let us sell the refuse of corn."