Amos 5:12 (KJV)

Passage

For 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.

Nearby Context

Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Amos 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

Amos 5:12 For 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.

Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Amos 5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "transgressions", "manifold", "mighty", "sins", "afflict", "just", "take", and "bribe". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "transgressions" and "manifold", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon..." into verse 13's "Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in...", so "transgressions" and "manifold" belong inside that flow. In Amos context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "transgressions" and "manifold" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.