{"id":77565,"date":"2020-07-16T17:35:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=77565"},"modified":"2020-07-19T17:10:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T14:10:26","slug":"when-the-rich-gouge-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-the-rich-gouge-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"When The Rich Gouge The Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In this series on economic inequality in the book of Amos, we\u2019ve seen how officials, judges and priests are all implicated in the plight of the poor. Today\u2019s chapter brings together these ideas in a striking text when the prophet describes the schemes of the rich to increase their wealth:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cListen to this, you who devour the needy, annihilating the poor of the land, saying, ‘If only the new moon were over, so that we could sell grain; the sabbath, so that we could offer wheat for sale, using an ephah that is small, and a shekel that is big, tilting a dishonest scale, and selling grain refuse as grain!\u2026’\u201d (verses 4-6).<\/span><\/p>\n

For Ibn Ezra, this is a statement of the storehouse administrators. They wish for a famine so they can sell stored food for more money. He notes that in time of famine, food sellers will benefit from an increase in prices.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plain meaning of the Hebrew <\/span>matai ya’avor hachodesh<\/span><\/em> is that the speaker is eager for the New Moon to be over \u2013a day of rest where commerce was not allowed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Malbim reads the verb <\/span>ya’avor<\/em> <\/span>as though it is \u2018to make <\/span>me’ubar<\/span><\/em>\u2013 i.e., to make a leap year. These speakers hope the court will extend the calendar year with a leap month. Why? Because the new grain cannot be eaten until after the Omer is offered on the second night of Pesach, so extending the calendar year would mean that the current grain would have to last an additional month. Here, too, prices would increase, benefiting the rich landowners and administrators.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim also reads the word \u201cthe Sabbath\u201d as referring to the Sabbatical year. During the sabbatical year, the ordinary working people don\u2019t till their fields. They go to storehouses to purchase food, says Malbim. There, they can be sold small quantities for large amounts of money, with dishonest measurements.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2:10, we saw reference to God taking the Jews from Egypt through the desert for 40 years. God\u2019s goal \u2013 to create a nation of people loyal to God\u2019s laws and compassionate to strangers and the subservient \u2013 should have been realized during that time of embryonic national development. The agricultural, legal and religious systems set up were designed to protect the weak (as much as possible in the Ancient Near East). Courts, holidays, sabbatical years: all of these should be creating a more just and equal society. Instead, the privileged have begun to hope for famine and hunger so as to line their own pockets.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s clear overall, that the prophet does not object to wealth itself. Societies need judges, priests, administrators and landowners. If they become wealthy at the expense of the poor, if they use their positions to push others down, rather than lifting them up \u2013 it is then that their wealth and power are illegitimate. As a result, God swears, “I will never forget any of their doings.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the privileged will not protect the disadvantaged, God will no longer protect them.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":77566,"id":77566,"title":"amos8-money-shark","filename":"amos8-money-shark.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos8-money-shark.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-the-rich-gouge-the-poor\/amos8-money-shark\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"amos8-money-shark","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77565,"date":"2020-07-16 14:34:20","modified":"2020-07-16 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