Text -- Amos 1:9 (NET)

1:9 This is what the Lord says: “Because Tyre has committed three crimes– make that four!– I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They sold a whole community to Edom; they failed to observe a treaty of brotherhood.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Amo 1:9

¹ tn Traditionally, “transgressions” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) or “sins” (NIV). For an explanation of the atrocities outlined in this oracle as treaty violations of God’s mandate to Noah in Gen 9:5-7, see the note on the word “violations” in 1:3.

² tn Heb “Because of three violations of Tyre, even because of four.”

sn On the three…four style that introduces each of the judgment oracles of chaps. 1-2 see the note on the word “four” in 1:3.

³ tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.

⁴ tn Heb “handed over.”

⁵ tn Heb “[group of] exiles.” A similar phrase occurs in v. 6.

⁶ tn Heb “did not remember.”

⁷ sn A treaty of brotherhood. In the ancient Near Eastern world familial terms were sometimes used to describe treaty partners. In a treaty between superior and inferior parties, the lord would be called “father” and the subject “son.” The partners in a treaty between equals referred to themselves as “brothers.” For biblical examples, see 1 Kgs 9:13; 20:32-33.