“Let Justice Roll Down Like Water”
Amos 5:18-24
By John Liotti
Fuller Theological Seminary
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Economic Injustice in the United States
The American economic system has been lauded as the most exemplary and efficient
system in the world, whole-heartedly supported by the protestant Evangelical community. The
American church has embraced the values of free enterprise, hard work, self-empowerment, low
taxation and ‘pulling yourself up by your boot-straps’. Religion and economics, in many U.S.
churches, merge into one. Any hint of a system of higher taxation or regulation of the capital and
banking system meets the ire of the conservative party. Any form of redistribution whether as a
progressive tax system, food stamp subsidies or entitlement programs will catalyze a reaction of
protests, fully supported directly or indirectly by the conservative Christian community, many of
whom themselves are victims of an unjust economic system.
Financial deregulation in the 1990’s and 2000’s created a system where the power and
creativity of the banking industry was unleashed on an unsuspecting and uneducated public.
Instruments such as Mortgage Backed Securities brought Wall Street investors full-force into the
mortgage industry with a goal of profit making, not family or community stabilization. What once
was a relatively solid and secure system where one could purchase a house and expect a decent
return on investment over many years, became a system where banks saw tremendous shortterm profit making opportunities.
Individuals, seduced by the lure of fast money, speculated on the housing market.
Dangerous lending policies such as no documentation loans, sub-prime lending, interest-only
loans, negative amortization loans and the like created high profit margins for individuals, banks
and Wall Street. Housing prices inflated beyond their intrinsic values. When the bubble burst the
system crashed and millions lost their homes. Their life savings were decimated. However,
Americans seem to be divided on who is to blame. In 2011 the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission,
comprised of law and policy makers, investigated the crisis. Casting a wide net of blame including
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two Presidential administrations, the “Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a
calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to
investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans. “The greatest tragedy would be to
accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been
done,” the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. “If we
accept this notion, it will happen again.i” ”
However, the housing market is only one example of unchecked capitalism in the United
States. The rampant rise of the use of credit cards ensnares individuals into revolving debt with
high interest rates that are, for many, beyond repayment. Perhaps the next victim of the
deregulation of the banking industry is the college student. In 2011, “student loan defaults up,
tuition rising another 8.3 percent… a new report estimating that average student debt for
borrowers from the college class of 2010 has passed $25,000.ii” This is only the tip of the iceberg.
There is rampant corruption and predatory practices in all areas of the lending and banking
industry. Car loans, rent-to-own furniture, payday-lending outlets (many of which are owned by
our national banks) are just a few of the ways the individual must be wary of abuse.
However, perhaps the most stark result of the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 is an old
tale: the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. While the wealthy were recovering and
prospering from the agony of the financial crash, the middle, working class and poor in the United
States were quickly losing ground. The Century Foundation reports that “every dollar and more of
aggregate gains in household wealth between 2009 and 2011 went to the richest 7 percent of
households. Aggregate net worth among this top group rose 28 percent during the first two years
of the recovery, from $19.8 trillion to $25.4 trillion. The bottom 93 percent, meanwhile, saw their
aggregate net worth fall 4 percent, from $15.4 trillion to $14.8 trillion. As a result, wealth
inequality increased substantially over the 2009–2011 period, with the wealthiest 7 percent of U.S.
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households increasing their aggregate share of the nation’s overall wealth from 56 percent to 63
percent.”iii The concentration of wealth by the upper class hurts not only families and individuals,
but creates rising inequality and poverty across all social strata. When income is unfairly
distributed, among other things, economic growth is hampered, crime rates rise, graduation rates
among all but the rich are stagnated and life spans decrease. "With inequality at its highest level
since before the Depression, a robust recovery will be difficult in the short term, and the American
dream — a good life in exchange for hard work — is slowly dying."iv
One must ask why the American Church at best condones such as system, or, at worst
profits from the abuses. Where is the call of economic justice and equity in our troubling times?
Does the Bible have anything to say regarding economic justice and the disparity of wealth and
poverty?
The Prophet Amos had a unique perspective on issues of wealth centralization with the
wealthy class, as well as a clear perspective on how God views economic oppression in a society,
especially when His people are involved.
Who was Amos?
The background of the Prophet is somewhat limited in the text, but there are clues to his
vocation, upbringing and reasons for his important message. He preached to the Northern
Kingdom from the years 783 and 742 BCE, during the reigns of Kings Jeroboam II of Israel and
Uzziah of Judah. According to the text, Amos was from the town of Tekoa. The town was small,
located a few miles to the south of Jerusalem. It appears that it was noted for, “its cultivation of a
kind of rural common sense, a folk wisdom of the type found in the Book of Proverbs.”v “The
opening verse of the book indicates that he is a shepherd. The word translated “shepherd” is also
used of Mesha, the king of Moab, who dealt in livestock by the hundreds of thousands (2
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Kings3:4)”vi This would suggest that Amos wasn’t a lonely, wandering herdsman, but a man of
some means who would have both substance and influence, much like a modern day rancher or
large scale farmer.vii He was not a “man of the cloth,” or part of the “school of the prophets”. In
7:14-15, he indicates he was a layperson, not one called to the office of prophet or in the King’s
court, as was Jonah.
His status and profession would indicate he was more than a disgruntled rebel, but
someone who knew security and wealth. He would be a wealthy person speaking to his own socioeconomic strata, driven by convictions and not personal need. However, Amos is from the
Southern Kingdom of Judah and was called to preach to the northern kingdom. In this case, he
would have been an outsider. His words would speak truth to power from both a person of
resources and an outsider. This gave him a unique perspective.
Though from a small town, the text indicates that he was familiar with international affairs
(1:3-2:5, 9:7). The text also indicates that he was an effective communicator, with uses of
metaphors and similes and creative repetitions. Amos clearly had a level of literacy and familiarity
with language arts. Amos has always been admired for the purity of his language, his beauty of
diction, and his poetic art.viii
In What Context Did Amos Live?
Times were good in the Northern Kingdom. “Affluence, exploitation and profit motive were
the most notable features of the society which Amos observed and in which he worked.” ix
Jeroboam II’s reign marked a period of stability and wealth in the Northern Kingdom. With the rule
of the Assyrians waning for a period until Tiglath-Pileser III’s (745-727 BCE) later expansions,
Jeroboam II took advantage and rapidly concurred Syria, Ammon and Moab thereby extending, “his
dominions from the source of the Orontes on the north, to the Dead Sea on the south. The whole
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northern empire of Solomon thus practically restored had enjoyed a long period of peace and
security marked by a revival of artistic and commercial development.”x
With the great prosperity came arrogance and acts of injustice toward the poor. The
“triumphs of the king had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home.
Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor,
and a craving for amusement were some of the internal fruits of these external triumphs”xi
There was splendor in the land. The rich often had two palaces, adorned with ivory, one for
each of the main seasons (3:15). They had “gorgeous couches with damask pillows, pleasant
vineyard and anointing themselves with precious oils.”xii The women were compared to the “fat
cows of Bashan” and were addicted to wine (4:1).
At the same time, there was great injustice being perpetrated on the poor. The poor were
afflicted, exploited, sold into slavery, subject to corrupt judges, property and business rackets
abounded (2:6-7). “When the poor could not contribute to the rich they were simply ignored and left
to be broken (6:6)”xiiiMoney making and covetousness were the rule of they day.
What Amos found when he arrived in the north was a religious religion that had lost all its
moral and ethical bearings, and had sold out to materialism, greed, violence and envy. He called
the people to repentance and to seek justice (5:6-7):
“Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour,
with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!”
Specific Issues Regarding Selected Text
Amos 5:21-24 (ESV):
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
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Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Amos 5:21-24 is a tour de force. It is Amos breaking the issue down to its minimalist
simplicity: when you ignore the poor and exploit the vulnerable, your religion is meaningless. The
rest of Amos, with its pleading for repentance and its pronouncement of judgment hangs on this
central truth. The underlying tone of this passage is that justice is not an idea or a passing concern
to God, but a central concern. “What obtains between God and His people is not only a covenant of
mutual obligations, but also a relationship of mutual concern.” xiv No matter how quality the
sacrifice, without justice it is lifeless and misinformed. Amos reminds Israel the importance of
right sacrifice, as the Prophet Samuel admonished King Saul:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of
the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
- 1 Samuel 15: 22 (ESV)
There are three keys to understanding this passage: 1) The Cultic Sacrifices of the
Northern Kingdom; 2) The Emphatic Words; 3) The Call to Justice and Righteousness.
The Cultic Sacrifices of the Northern Kingdom
The Northern Kingdom, perhaps due to its being cut off from Jerusalem and the temple,
developed a perchance for cultic worship. The Temple contained the Ark of the Covenant, the
dominant and unifying symbol of Israel’s religious life. When King Jeroboam I (922-901 BCE) began
his reign, he felt the need to provide a unifying religious symbol for the new nation separated from
the temple sacrifices. He quickly established two national religious shrines that rivaled Jerusalem
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in their splendor, one in Dan and one in Bethel, the location associated with Jacob in Genesis
28:18-22. If this wasn’t enough, Jeroboam I established a non-Levitical priesthood in direct
contradiction of the commandment in Deuteronomy 18:1-8, thereby known as the Sins of
Jeroboam. Henceforth the subsequent kings of the Northern Kingdom allowed these shrines to
operate. They were later to be judged by the Deuteronomists as wicked and unfaithful kings. “On
this one basis, no matter his military or political or economic successes, no king of the Northern
Kingdom is recorded as a good king.” xv In this manner, Amos 4:4-5 is intrinsically related to the
text we are considering. Here Amos drives home the point of God’s displeasure of the worship of
the north. It states:
“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your
sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;
Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings,
publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.”
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you
did not return to me,” declares the Lord.”
The text includes a reference to Gilgal, which was a disputed part of both the northern and
southern kingdoms. While we “cannot determine whether Gilgal belonged to Israel or to Judah in
Amos’ time. Most likely it was still a common shrine as it had been before the division.”xvi What the
prophet is condemning is a mock call to worship and a pilgrimage to the great shrines that
supported militarism and the equation with victory and thanksgiving to the material prosperity
based on being sanctified by religious sacrifice. It is to use “such tokens of divine approval to
legitimize the false religions embraced by the wicked kings and to use this as justification for
building the empire on the backs of the poor and exploited. Yahweh considers this to be “violation
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on top of violation.”xvii For this the priesthood is violated, sacrifices profaned therefore making the
kingdom a target of judgment and ultimate destruction.
The Emphatic Words of the Prophet
Amos 5:18-24 contains some of the strongest words spoken in scriptural text. Yahweh is
adamantly displeased with the false worship and religious justification of His chosen people.
Speaking as the messenger of God, the prophet seeks to interrupt the furious activity of cultic
worship by clearly denouncing His visceral reaction to all that is occurring. The passage begins
with two verbs, “I hate” and “I despise”. He then continues with four more negated verbs, “I take no
delight in,” which is can also be translated as, “I don’t like the smell of.” The same verb was also
used with a positive sense to indicate the Lord’s delight with the offering that Noah made after the
flood in Genesis 8:21. After the phrase, “I will not accept,” the next two verbs express God’s
reaction in sensual terms. “I will not look upon,” and “I will not listen.”xviii Taken together, these
statements make clear that the Lord’s rejection of the people’s worship is total. He clearly doesn’t
like the look, smell, sight or even the sound of the people’s worship and what is happening in the
cultic shrines. All of these pronouncements indicate that participation in these rituals has become
an end in themselves. The worshippers were perhaps interested in enhancing their own social
statuses, building their personal reputations, inflating their self worth and justifying their
oppression. Verse 23 suddenly turns singular and personal. It is as if Amos is holding a leader
responsible or, perhaps, “as though the abuse of worship is so universal that the notion of Israel
can be rebuked as it was a single person.” xix Here, the Prophet is making the offense more
intimate, showing how much He holds the people both corporately and personally responsible for
their treacherous worship. For religion has become an occasion for sumptuous feasts and singing,
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not the act of worship to a loving and compassionate God. One could hear the singing and
rejoicing, but to God it was a personally unpleasant “noisy gong or clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1)
The Call to Justice and Righteousness
The selected text ends with the familiar verses, “But let justice roll down like waters, and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” There were many reasons God was displeased with
the cultic worship. Other than the obvious aberration by the incorporation of false idols into the
corporate worship of the nation, which in itself was a reason for judgment, there is a deeper
meaning. The worship of the people had become a cul-de-sac. Their religion was without purpose,
and was self-aggrandizement and justification of injustice. It had significance to the missional arc
of the Old Testament and Covenant. The Lord is looking for worship to channel the righteousness
and justice of God, the cultivation of sound moral principles of life or guidance for ethical behavior.
It made no difference in one’s life and therefore had no significance before God or man.
The Prophet uses language familiar to an agrarian society dependent on seasonal rain to
provide prosperity. The similes, “roll down like waters” and “ever-flowing” were especially
effective in a context where most streams were seasonal and provided provision through the long
hot and dry summer months. The also showed how “utterly essential justice and righteousness
were to Israel’s life and faith.”xx A people in covenant relationship with Yahweh could no more live
without a commitment to justice, than the land without the sustaining of life that water provides.
In these final words we find the negative pronouncements in verses 21-23 turn hopeful,
indicating that through repentance life could again flow to Israel. In these words we find a glimmer
of hope in the midst of impending judgment. If only Israel would repent, then the utter
hopelessness would be removed and the Covenant could be re-established. The true heart of
worship could again be found, evidenced by adoration of Yahweh in both word and deed. A concern
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for the rights and welfare of all people would be re-established and justice would flow like
sustaining water to all, like a mighty river.
Application
What would it mean for justice to “roll down like waters” both in Amos’ time and ours?
First it means to embrace the biblical notion of justice as dynamic action. The Prophet
Micah gives us the right attitude in coming before the Lord, “To do justly, love mercy and walk
humbly.” (Micah 6:8). Therefore, justice is an not a static noun that describes the, “achievement of
fairness and equality and symbolized in the state of balance where all is at rest.”xxi Justice to Amos
is like dynamic, flowing water, which cleanses, restores and nourishes. For Amos, water is
commotion and action, never at rest, ever-flowing. Judges 5:21 uses similar language describing
water. It says:
The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my
soul, with might!
In the same manner, Amos provides a prophetic vision of justice, like a rushing torrent that
sweeps all into its motion and is always seeking to bring life in place of death, stagnation and
despair.
Secondly, justice is a response to worship and the work of God in one’s life. Isaiah 5:1-7
employs the picture of a vineyard. Doing justice is like a farmer’s vineyard that produces grapes for
the harvest. If the harvest is not produced, the vineyard is destroyed. When the people of God fail to
produce a harvest of justice, then judgment comes upon them. Producing a harvest of justice is
therefore a result of the cultivation God does in our lives. This pattern of cause and effect, God’s
work producing an expected return of justice, is a recurring theme in scripture.
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Lastly, doing justice means we are called to be an advocate for the powerless. Throughout
scripture we see the recurring call for justice to the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, those in
poverty and the oppressed. In Isaiah 1:14-17 we see a similar response to worship as the text in
Amos. The Prophet states:
“Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to
me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many
prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my
eyes; cease to do evil,
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the
widow's cause.”
When the Prophets, such as Amos, speak of justice they are not speaking theoretically or
solely spiritual. They are calling us to concrete actions with real people. They are calling us into
the urban centers of the U.S., to the slums of Manila, to the favelas of Brazil, inviting us to get
“dirty” with actions that bring relief and comfort to the oppressed.
Here we see the threefold action that Amos calls us: to live dynamically, looking to extend
justice to the dark corners of the world, as worship with integrity, where our love and devotion for
God is in alignment with the pain of the world and as advocates, and as Christ was, “standing in
the gap” for the oppressed and broken.
Conclusion
Our nation has been blessed to be in a position of power in the world. We continue to be the
dominant economic force in the world. Our military power extends throughout the globe. Over the
past 100 years we’ve sent missionaries across the globe, fostering a growing revival throughout
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the Global South. Ourself deeply religious with “Nearly four in 10 Americans report that they
attended religious services in the past seven days.” xxii We have an apparent devotion to God.
However, as in Amos’ time, materialism and false idols have the potential of tainting our devotion
to God.
As Amos and the Prophets indicate, the quality of our worship depends on our commitment
to doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly. The current economic statistics are startling.
Inequality is on the rise, homelessness and poverty are growing and the state of our middle class,
along with the backbone of our economy, is eroding. The American church is at a crossroads. Will
we maintain the biblical call to focus on the things that matter, or will we go the way of ancient
Israel, and thereby experience the pain, separation and judgment that follows when a people fail to
hear the cry of the poor and oppressed?
Chan, Sewell, “Financial Crisis was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds,” The New York Times, January 25th, 2011,
accessed March 24, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/business/economy/26inquiry.html?_r=0
ii Pope, Justin, “Student Loans, the Next Bubble?,” The Huffington Post, November 6th, 2011, accessed March
24, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/06/student-loans-the-next-bu_n_1078730.html
iii Landy, Benjamin, “A Tale of Two Recoveries, Wealth Inequality After the Great Recession”, The Century
Foundation, August 28th, 2013, accessed March 24, 2014, found at:
http://tcf.org/work/workers_economic_inequality/detail/a-tale-of-two-recoveries
iv Hargreaves, Steve, “How Income Inequality Hurts America”, USA Today, September 25th, 2013, accessed
March 24, 2014, found at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/25/news/economy/income-inequality/
v Limberg, Jim, “Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Hosea – Micah”, (John
Knox Press: Atlanta, 1988), P.82
vi ibid
vii ibid
viii “Jewish Encyclopedia”, accessed March 24, 2014, found at:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1423-amos
ix Motyer, J.A., “The Message of Amos, The Day of the Lion”, (Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 1974), P.
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x “Amos, The Prophet”, accessed March 24, 2014, found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_(prophet)
xi “Jewish Encyclopedia”, accessed March 24, 2014, found at:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8599-jeroboam
xii Heschel, Abraham, “The Prophets”, (Harper Collins: New York, 2001), P. 33
xiii Motyer, P.15
xiv Heschel, P. 38-39
xv Leclerc, Thomas L., Introduction to the Prophets, Their Stories, Sayings and Scrolls, (Paulist Press: New
York, 2007), P. 83
i
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Anderson, Francis I., Freedman, David Noel, “Amos, A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary”, (Doubleday: New York, 1989), P. 433
xvii ibid, P. 434
xviii Limberg, P. 104
xix Hubbard, David Allen, “Joel & Amos, An Introduction & Commentary”, (Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove,
IL, 1989), P. 182
xx ibid, P. 183
xxi Limberg, P. 107
xxii Newport, Frank, “In U.S., Four in 10 Report Attending Church in Last Week”, Gallup Politics, accessed
March 24, 2014, found at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/166613/four-report-attending-church-last-week.aspx
xvi
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