Amos 8:6

We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ¹  a pair of sandals ²  for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ³ 

buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?"

And you mix the wheat you sell with chaff swept from the floor! Then you enslave poor people for a debt of one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.

You exploit the poor, using them--and then, when they're used up, you discard them.

Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.

buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals––Even sell the bad wheat?"

We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ¹  a pair of sandals ²  for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ³ 

¹ tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”

sn The expression trade silver for the poor refers to the slave trade.

² tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.

³ tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”