What does "making the ephah small and the shekel large" signify in Amos 8:5? Setting in Amos 8 • Israel is enjoying outward prosperity, yet Amos exposes a hidden rot of greed and injustice. • 8:4-6 pinpoints merchants who hurry through holy days so they can get back to profit-making schemes. The Key Phrase in v. 5 “ …to diminish the ephah, to increase the shekel, and to cheat with dishonest scales ”. • Ephah – standard dry measure for grain (cf. Exodus 16:36). Shrinking it means giving customers less than they paid for. • Shekel – both a coin and a unit of weight. Making it “large” means weighing money or goods with an extra-heavy weight so the buyer pays more or the seller gives less. • Together the two moves create a double swindle: you sell short measure at an inflated price. What the Practice Signifies • Deliberate, systematic fraud against neighbors. • Contempt for God’s law requiring honest weights (Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-16). • Exploitation of the poor, whom God repeatedly defends (Proverbs 14:31; 22:22-23). • Spiritual hypocrisy—keeping Sabbaths externally while planning deceit internally, revealing that profit, not the Lord, rules the heart (Matthew 6:24). • A trigger for divine judgment; Amos 8 moves straight from this sin to God’s oath of catastrophic consequences (vv. 7-14). Echoes in the Rest of Scripture • “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 11:1). • “Can I excuse dishonest scales…?” (Micah 6:10-11). • Malachi 3:5 lists oppressors who “defraud laborers of their wages” among those God will judge. • Revelation 18:11-13 portrays the final fall of a commerce-driven Babylon, showing God still takes economic sins seriously. Timeless Takeaways • God watches our business dealings as closely as our worship services. • Integrity requires full, fair weights and measures in every transaction—pricing, contracts, taxes, time sheets. • Love for neighbor shows up in honest commerce; greed reveals idolatry. • If we repent of hidden economic sins, the Lord is ready to forgive and bless (1 John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13). |
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