Amos, Justice, and the NIV

In a previous post, “Amos and Social Justice,” I wrote that justice and righteousness were the focus of Amos’ message. In that post I studied the ways in which the word “justice” was used in Amos. In the present post, I will discuss how the NIV uses the word “justice” in the book of Amos.

The message of Amos contains a strong criticism of the royal officials of the Northern Kingdom and of those who administered justice in the courts because they were undermining the legal system of Israel in order to exploit the underprivileged and drive the peasants away from their patrimony. Because of the legal decisions made by dishonest judges, many landowners became tenants of a rich class of people who abused the legal system to take possession of their lands.

Amos used the word “justice” (mishpat) to criticize the royal officials, the judges, and the rich people for the perversion of the judicial process in Israel. In his commentary on Amos, James L. Mays wrote:

“In Amos mishpat is specifically associated with the court in the gates and means the judicial process and its decisions by which right order is maintained in social relations, and especially the protection of [the] weak and poor through the help of the court” (p. 108).

Mays also wrote:

“When the poor and afflicted come to the courts of justice they are dealt out the very same injustice from which they sought relief. To Amos, who will allow Israel no other identity and way of life than that given her in the election of Yahweh, such a reversal of things staggers the mind, and he can only compare it to some incredible perversion of the normal order of things” (p. 121).

The word “justice” (misphat) appears four times in the book of Amos: three times the word appears in association with “righteousness” (sedaqa) and once the word appears alone:

“O you who turn justice (misphat) to wormwood, and cast down righteousness (sedaqa) to the earth” (Amos 5:7).

“But let justice (misphat) roll down like waters, and righteousness (sedaqa) like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24).

“But you have turned justice (misphat) into poison and the fruit of righteousness (sedaqa) into wormwood” (Amos 6:12).

“Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice (misphat) in the gate” (Amos 5:15).

Anyone who desires to understand the message of Amos should read the book in light of Amos’ emphasis on social justice. A study of the word “justice” as its appears in the book of Amos will help the reader see Amos as a prophet who spoke against evil in the public place.

Unfortunately, the NIV is not a good place to go for a study of the word “justice” in Amos. The reason for this statement is because the NIV is not consistent in its use of the word “justice” in the book of Amos. Twice the NIV uses the word “justice” in places where the word mishpat is not used in the Hebrew text. Those readers of the Bible who do not know Hebrew will think that the word “justice” in those additional places has the same meaning as the word “justice” in the verses where the Hebrew word mishpat appears.

In Amos 2:7, the NIV reads:

“They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.”

The Hebrew should be translated as follows: “They turn aside the way of the afflicted.” This translation is followed by the RSV: “they that trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted.”

The NIV used the word “justice” and translated the expression “to turn aside the way” by “deny justice” even though Amos did not use the word mishpat. Wolff said that the Hebrew expression “to turn aside the way of the afflicted” “is an abbreviated equivalent of ‘to pervert the courses of justice’” (p. 166). Mays wrote that to “‘turn aside the way of the afflicted’ is a locution for the perversion of legal procedure. ‘Way’ (derek) is a synonym for ‘justice’ (mishpat)” (p. 46).

Only the NIV and the TNIV use the word “justice” in Amos 2:7. All other translations do not use the word “justice” to clarify the message of Amos.

In Amos 5:12, the NIV reads:

“You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.”

The Hebrew should be translated as follows: “You who oppress the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.” This translation is followed by the RSV: “you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.”

The NIV, by using the word “justice” here, is following a common practice in the Hebrew Bible where the word natah (“to turn aside”) usually occurs together with the word mishpat (Exodus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:19; Proverbs 17:23). However, although the word natah is used, the word mishpat does not appear in Amos 5:12.

Only the NIV, the TNIV, the NET, the HCSB, and the Living Bible use the word “justice” in Amos 5:12. The New King James Version also uses “justice,” but the word is in italics to indicate that the word is not in the Hebrew text and has been added to clarify the meaning of the English translation.

What distinguishes Amos and his use of mishpat is that he is the first one to use the word together with sedeqa. As Wolff has pointed out, “this word pair is completely unknown in Israel’s legal collections in the Pentateuch” (p. 245). After Amos, Isaiah used the words misphat and sedaqa together three times (1:21; 5:7; 28:17). The two words again appear in wisdom literature, in the Psalms, and in Jeremiah. Wolff concludes that the use of the words misphat and sedaqa in the Hebrew Bible clearly indicates that Amos was the first one to use them together.

By using the words “justice” in Amos 2:7 and 5:12, the NIV is trying to clarify to its readers the legal meaning behind these two verses. However, in doing so, the NIV may leave the impression in the mind of some readers that the Hebrew word mishpat is behind the translation of “justice” in Amos 2:7 and 5:12.

Any translation of the Bible must clarify the original text for its readers but, at times, the inconsistency of the NIV does not help the English speaking reader grasp the significance of the use or non-use of specific words by the prophet. Some people may see in the NIV an example of moderation and others may call the TNIV "maligned"; I would call both translations: inconsistent.

Bibliography:

James L. Mays, Amos (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1969).

Hans W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Amos, Justice, Mishpat, Righteousness

Amos and Social Justice

Amos was the earliest prophet whose words are preserved in the form of a book. He prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel somewhere between the years 760-750 B.C. Amos’ preaching took place during the mid-eighth century B. C., a few years before the prophet Hosea began his ministry.

The eighth century was a period during which a privileged few in Israel were enjoying unprecedented prosperity while most Israelites were facing dire poverty. Although Amos lived in Tekoa, a small village bordering the wilderness of Judah, his preaching to Israel provided a powerful prophetic witness for all ages because of his condemnation of the spiritual blindness of the Judean upperclass and their unjust exploitation of the poor.

Amos forged an explicit and unbreakable link between justice toward the neighbor and righteousness before God, a link that went back to the covenant at Sinai and to the ancient prophetic traditions of Israel. Amos’ ministry provides an eternal witness of God’s opposition to economic, political, and social injustice.

The words of Amos were adapted by Martin Luther King, Jr., whose famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. in August 1963 brought a new meaning to the words of Amos: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).

Amos spoke to an oppressed society and his concern for the poor and the oppressed made him a prophet for all times. Amos is also a prophet for the twenty-first century, a time when the gap between rich and poor has never been greater.

The sources of oppression and injustice may look different today, but people’s concern for material prosperity reflects the days in which Amos lived. Amos’ message of God’s opposition to injustice, his criticism of the people’s worship of material things, and his witness of God's special concern for the poor and oppressed, affirm that the worship of God in any age is worthless if social oppression and injustice are ignored.

Since justice and righteousness are the focus of Amos’ message, it is important to look at how the words justice and righteousness are used by the prophet. The words justice and righteousness are used together three times in two chapters of the book of Amos (Amos 5:7; 5:24; 6:12). The word justice is used once by itself (Amos 5:15).

“O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth” (Amos 5:7 RSV).

“Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15 RSV).

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24 RSV).

“Do horses run upon rocks? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (Amos 6:12 RSV).

Wormwood was an extremely bitter plant. The word was used several times in Jeremiah and in Lamentations to describe the bitterness of the calamities that befell Judah at the time of their exile to Babylon (Jeremiah 9: 15; 23:15; Lamentation 3: 15, 19). The justice that Israel's courts dispensed to the poor was nothing but bitterness.

The oppression and injustice Amos found in the Northern Kingdom was evidence that righteousness had been thrown to the ground as something worthless by those who were in power. Righteousness no longer had any meaning for the powerful people of Israel as a requirement of the worship of God.

To Amos, "hating evil and loving good" was a simple yet powerful statement of how to establish justice "in the gate." In a very simple language, the prophet placed principles of true justice before a group of people who could argue about legal technicalities while tolerating bribery, corruption, and greed.

The gate of the city was fortified in order to protect the city from enemies and to serve as the place where the elders of the city would gather as a legal assembly to decide cases needing adjudication. The gate was the place where the local judiciary met to determine right and wrong in legal disputes, and therefore, to decide who was innocent or guilty.

Deuteronomy 25: 1 describes this process: “Suppose two persons have a dispute and enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them, declaring one to be in the right and the other to be in the wrong.” If the judges successfully declared where the right was, then justice had been
served.

The decision of the court had a redemptive aspect for the parties involved in the litigation. The decision of the court was intended to vindicate the just party in a legal dispute. The decision was also intended to protect the social order by determining right and wrong and correcting the wrong. Thus, the decision of the court was particularly important in cases where the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien, people without power and influence, could not find redress in the community apart from the decision of the court.

When the words “justice” and “righteousness” are used in Amos, justice is the primary word since it appears first in the parallelism of the two words. Justice is the result of seeking or loving good, as in Amos 5:15. Justice is also the fruit or the result of righteousness as in Amos 6:12. Thus, according to Amos, righteousness is essential to the well-being of the community. Righteousness is essentially a relational rather than an absolute ethical idea. Righteousness has to do with the relationship between a person and God, and a relationship between members of the community. Righteousness is a relational concept; its meaning is determined by the particular social context in which it is used. Righteousness is a quality of life which is displayed by people who live up to the demands of the covenant. The righteous person does what is right to other persons involved in the relationship.

Amos proclaimed that Israel had violated the ancient traditions of Israel. The poor and oppressed were individuals who deserved the protection of the court and fair treatment by those in a position of dispensing legal decisions. The only way for this to become a reality in Israelite society was for justice to roll down like waters, and for righteousness to run like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Amos, Justice, Mishpat, Righteousness