Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Amos 5:12 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 12. 12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse names multiplied transgressions, affliction of the just, bribes, and exclusion of poor litigants at the gate.
Read It With
- Amos 5:10-13
Read Amos 5:12 with 5:10-13. This verse names multiplied transgressions, affliction of the just, bribes, and exclusion of poor litigants at the gate. The complete unit establishes this movement: Gate institutions punish truthful correction, extract from poor people, take bribes, and turn needy claimants aside; elite houses and vineyards therefore offer no secure enjoyment.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The abstract charge against justice becomes a concrete account of speech suppression, extraction, bribery, and blocked legal access. Within that movement, this verse names multiplied transgressions, affliction of the just, bribes, and exclusion of poor litigants at the gate.
Follow the Context
- Gate rebuke and upright speech are hated.
- The poor bear exactions while elites build stone houses and desirable vineyards.
- Afflictions, sins, bribes, and exclusion of the poor are known.
- The evil time can make prudent people keep silence.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
The verse does not prove guilt from wealth or authorize public punishment without evidence and due process.
What Remains True
God knows the specific institutional routes by which justice is sold and poor claimants are turned aside.
How It Can Shape Life
- Remove bribes, conflicts, and access barriers while documenting decisions.
Teach It Back
Explain Amos 5:12's contribution to Amos 5:10-13: names multiplied transgressions, affliction of the just, bribes, and exclusion of poor litigants at the gate. Include what the surrounding verses add, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Amos 5:10-13 — Gate Truth Is Hated While the Poor Are BurdenedSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The relation between 'just' and legal innocence and the forms of bribery are contextually strong but not exhaustively reconstructed.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Amos 5:10-13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Amos
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, wordplays, names, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Amos.xml, 5:10-13
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Amos with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Amos PDF, printed pp. 1713-1716, translation and notes on 5:10-13
Open source ↗