Amos 6:12

Do horses run upon crags? doth one plow(there) with oxen?or (dividing one word into two) doth one plow the sea with an ox? that ye have turned judgement into poison, &c. The two questions are meant to represent what is obviously unnatural and absurd. Do horses run over the jagged crags, or do men plough there with oxen (or with the emendation, Do men plough the sea with oxen), that ye do what is not less preposterous and unreasonable, viz. turn justice into injustice, and so transform what is wholesome into a poison? For the figure -turn judgement into poison," see Amos 5:7 ("into wormwood"). The emendation proposed (which, though conjectural, is supported by many of the best modern scholars) is recommended by the fact that it avoids the unusual plural beḳârîmand also obviates the necessity of mentally understanding "there" in the second clause of the verse.

gall poison: Heb. rôsh, occurring also Deuteronomy 32:32-33; Hosea 10:4; Jeremiah 8:14; Lamentations 3:5; Psalms 69:21; Job 20:16; and coupled, as here, with -wormwood" (cf. ch.Amos 5:7), Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:19; Deuteronomy 29:18; Hosea 10:4 shew that some poisonous plant is denoted by the word (so that the rendering gallis certainly wrong), though, since it is quite uncertain what plant is meant, it is impossible to render otherwise than by a perfectly general term, such as poison. As rôshalso signifies -head," some have thought poppies, of which several species are found in Palestine, to be the plant denoted by the word.

the fruit of righteousness i.e. the effects of righteousness (or justice), which would normally be wholesome and beneficial to society, but which, as it is perverted by the nobles of Israel into injustice, become wormwood (Amos 5:7), i.e. something bitter and deleterious to all.