Amos Chapter 6 verse 12 Holy Bible
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow `there' with oxen? that ye have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;
read chapter 6 in ASV
Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant?
read chapter 6 in BBE
Shall horses run upon the rock? will [men] plough [thereon] with oxen? For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
read chapter 6 in DARBY
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
read chapter 6 in KJV
read chapter 6 in WBT
Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, And the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;
read chapter 6 in WEB
Do horses run on a rock? Doth one plough `it' with oxen? For ye have turned to gall judgment, And the fruit of righteousness to wormwood.
read chapter 6 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 12-14. - The prophet shows the folly of these evil doers who think in their own strength to defy judgment and to resist the enemy whom God is sending against them. Verse 12. - Shall horses run upon the rock? Can horses gallop safely over places covered with rocks and stones? Will one plough there with oxen? Do men plough the rock with their oxen? The answer, of course, is "No." Yet your conduct is equally foolish, your labour is equally lost. Some, dividing the words differently, translate, "Does one plough the sea with oxen?" which reminds one of the Latin proverb, "Litus arare bubus." Thus Ovid, 'Ep. Heroid,' 5:115 - "Quid facis OEnone? Quid arenae semina mandas?Non protecturis litora bubus aras." For ye have turned; or, that ye have turned. Judgment into gall (see note on Amos 5:7). Hemlock. Some plant with an acrid juice. Ye turn the administration of justice, which is "the fruit of righteousness," into the bitterest injustice and wrong. It were "more easy," says Pusey, "to change the course of nature or the use of things of nature, than the course of God's providence or the laws of his just retribution."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) The questions require a negative answer, and show that the conduct of Israel is as inconsistent and senseless as the supposition involved in the interrogation: that horses should climb steep cliffs, or oxen plough in the rocky gorge. The conception of oppression, luxury, and pride being the forerunners of prosperity and peace is anomalous. The idea is, that that which should have insured the stability of the state, the embodiment of its conscience, had been turned into narcotic poison--the self-satisfaction of personal greed. Rosh, the Hebrew for "gall," is a poisonous kind of plant with bitter taste, and resembling, according to Jerome, stalks of grass, and propagating itself with such rapidity that it is difficult to exterminate it. (Comp. Hosea 10:4. Speaker's Commentary suggests "poppy-head.") In Amos 5:7 the word expressed here by "hemlock" is rendered "worm-wood," as in Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Deuteronomy 29:18, &c., a rendering which should have been retained here. Gall and worm-wood are constantly associated in Old Testament prophecy in this metaphorical sense.
