Amos 2:7

those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth
and turn aside the way of the afflicted;
a man and his father go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;


Fathers and sons have sex with the same girls — possibly as part of the pagan fertility rites. Honour and respect has broken down in a chaos of greed and abuse.

The third crime is that father and son were having sexual intercourse with the same girl, either a temple prostitute or a servant taken as a concubine (Ex. 21:7-9; Lev. 18:8, 15). By such promiscuity the men were showing their disregard for the Lord of the covenant and were profaning (i.e., treating as common) His holy name. God’s “name” (see comments on Ex. 3:13-15) spoke of His character and His unique commitment to Israel. To flaunt His commandments openly was to mock His character and to disdain His special place in their lives.


Denying justice (2:7a). The wealthy were so indifferent to the poor that they walked all over their rights, as disinterested as if they were walking along a road. Where no one cares about the needy the legal system itself will become corrupt and the poor will be denied access however just their cause.
A modern example is a N.Y. court’s decision that a minister is not allowed to speak for the unborn even from his pulpit. Not only is there no legal interest in the rights of unborn children, but basic constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and the separation of church and state are callously set aside. Each society must ask: Who speaks for the helpless? And each must answer for its indifference and unconcern.
Using the same girl (2:7b). The phrase likely refers to slave girls, who by tradition might be given as a secondary wife to a son of the household. But to simply use such a person as a sexual plaything for the men of the household violated the letter and spirit of O.T. Law concerning slaves, and showed the utter moral corruption of the land (cf. Ex. 21:7–11).

The third crime is their profanation of the name of God by shameless immorality (v. 7b); and the fourth, desecration of the sanctuary by drinking carousals (v. 8). A man and his father, i.e., both son and father, go to the girl, i.e., to the prostitute. The meaning is, to one and the same girl; but ’achath is omitted, to preclude all possible misunderstanding, as though going to different prostitutes was allowed. This sin was tantamount to incest, which, according to the law, was to be punished with death (cf. Lev. 18:7, 15, and 20:11). Temple girls (qedēshōth ) are not to be thought of here. The profanation of the name of God by such conduct as this does not indicate prostitution in the temple itself, such as was required by the licentious worship of Baal and Asherah (Ewald, Maurer, etc.), but consisted in a daring contempt of the commandments of God, as the original passage (Lev. 22:32) from which Amos took the words clearly shows (cf. Jer. 34:16). By lema’an, in order that (not “so that”), the profanation of the holy name of God is represented as intentional, to bring out the daring character of the sin, and to show that it did not arise from weakness or ignorance, but was practised with studious contempt of the holy God. Begâdīm chăbhulīm, pawned clothes, i.e., upper garments, consisting of a large square piece of cloth, which was wrapt all around, and served the poor for a counterpane as well. If a poor man was obliged to pawn his upper garment, it was to be returned to him before night came on (Ex. 22:25), and a garment so pawned was not to be slept upon (Deut. 24:12, 13). But godless usurers kept such pledges, and used them as cloths upon which they stretched their limbs at feasts (yattū, hiphil, to stretch out, sc. the body or its limbs); and this they did by every altar, at sacrificial meals, without standing in awe of God. It is very evident that Amos is speaking of sacrificial feasting, from the reference in the second clause of the verse to the drinking of wine in the house of God. עֲנוּשִׁים, punished in money, i.e., fined. Wine of the punished is wine purchased by the produce of the fines. Here again the emphasis rests upon the fact, that such drinking carousals were held in the house of God. ’Elōhēhem, not their gods (idols), but their God; for Amos had in his mind the sacred places at Bethel and Dan, in which the Israelites worshipped Jehovah as their God under the symbol of an ox (calf). The expression col-mizbēăch (every altar) is not at variance with this; for even if col pointed to a plurality of altars, these altars were still bāmōth, dedicated to Jehovah. If the prophet had also meant to condemn actual idolatry, i.e., the worship of heathen deities, he would have expressed this more clearly; to say nothing of the fact, that in the time of Jeroboam II there was no heathenish idolatry in the kingdom of the ten tribes, or, at any rate, it was not publicly maintained.

pant after … dust of … earth on … head of … poor—that is, eagerly thirst for this object, by their oppression to prostrate the poor so as to cast the dust on their heads in mourning on the earth (compare 2Sa 1:2; Job 2:12; Ez 27:30).
turn aside … way of … meek—pervert their cause (Am 5:12; Job 24:4 [Grotius]; Is 10:2).
a man and his father—a crime “not so much as named among the Gentiles” (1Co 5:1). When God’s people sin in the face of light, they often fall lower than even those who know not God.
go in unto the same maid—from Am 2:8 it seems likely “the damsel” meant is one of the prostitutes attached to the idol Astarte’s temple: prostitution being part of her filthy worship.
to profane my … name—Israel in such abominations, as it were, designedly seeks to insult God.

go in to the same girl. In the context of oppressing the helpless, the reference was probably to a slave girl

(cf. Exod 21:7–11; Lev 18:7–8; 19:20–22; 20:17–21; 22:32)