By framing their impatience as questions rather than statements, the merchants reveal their hearts; they view sacred time as an obstacle to profit. The interrogative form exposes their bitter resentment toward God’s commands, making their greed self-evident even as they outwardly observe the holy days.

No direct response is recorded. Amos presents their questions as self-incriminating evidence before announcing God’s judgment in the following verses, where the Lord swears never to forget their deeds and prophesies earthquake, mourning, and famine for the word of God.

The merchants’ questions drip with impatience, exposing hearts that view God’s holy days as commercial liabilities rather than spiritual treasures. The Hebrew verb translated over or gone (avar) means to pass away or be finished, used elsewhere for removing obstacles. They treat the new moon festival and weekly Sabbath as barriers to overcome rather than blessings to embrace. Their plan, making the ephah small and the shekel great, involved dual deception, cheating customers on both quantity received and price paid. Amos employs their own words as prosecution evidence, letting their questions condemn them. Why frame this as questions rather than declarations? Because questions reveal desire more transparently than statements. Their interrogatives expose not merely what they will do but what they long for, showing that their worship is hollow performance masking hearts bent toward injustice. The theological weight is severe. God sees past external observance to the intentions beneath, and He will not acquit those who honor Him with ritual while plotting oppression.