Amos 1:4

1:4 So I will set Hazael’s house ¹  on fire;

fire ²  will consume Ben Hadad’s ³  fortresses.

Amos 1:2

God Will Judge the Surrounding Nations

1:2 Amos ⁴  said:

“The Lord comes roaring ⁵  out of Zion;

from Jerusalem ⁶  he comes bellowing! ⁷ 

The shepherds’ pastures wilt; ⁸ 

the summit of Carmel ⁹  withers.” ¹⁰ 

Amos 1:8

1:8 I will remove ¹¹  the ruler ¹²  from Ashdod, ¹³ 

the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ¹⁴ 

I will strike Ekron ¹⁵  with my hand; ¹⁶ 

the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ¹⁷ 

The sovereign Lord has spoken!

Amos 1:2

God Will Judge the Surrounding Nations

1:2 Amos ¹⁸  said:

“The Lord comes roaring ¹⁹  out of Zion;

from Jerusalem ²⁰  he comes bellowing! ²¹ 

The shepherds’ pastures wilt; ²² 

the summit of Carmel ²³  withers.” ²⁴ 

Amos 1:6

1:6 This is what the Lord says:

“Because Gaza ²⁵  has committed three crimes ²⁶  –

make that four! ²⁷  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ²⁸ 

They deported a whole community ²⁹  and sold them ³⁰  to Edom.

Jeremiah 25:18-20

25:18 I made Jerusalem ³¹  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ³²  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ³³  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ³⁴  Such is already becoming the case! ³⁵  25:19 I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; ³⁶  his attendants, his officials, his people, 25:20 the foreigners living in Egypt; ³⁷  all the kings of the land of Uz; ³⁸  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, ³⁹  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; ⁴⁰ 

Jeremiah 47:1

Judgment on the Philistine Cities

47:1 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah ⁴¹  about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ⁴² 

Zechariah 9:5-7

9:5 Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. ⁴³  Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited. 9:6 A mongrel people will live in Ashdod, for I will greatly humiliate the Philistines. 9:7 I will take away their abominable religious practices; ⁴⁴  then those who survive will become a community of believers in our God, ⁴⁵  like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.

¹ tn “Hazael’s house” (“the house of Hazael”) refers to the dynasty of Hazael.

² tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ sn Ben-hadad may refer to Hazael’s son and successor (2 Kgs 13:3, 24) or to an earlier king (see 1 Kgs 20), perhaps the ruler whom Hazael assassinated when he assumed power.

⁴ tn Heb “he;” the referent (Amos) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ sn The Lord, in his role of warrior-king, is compared to a lion. See 3:4, 8.

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Heb “gives his voice.”

⁸ tn Lexicographers debate whether there are two roots אָבַל (’aval), one signifying “mourn” and the other “be dry,” or simply one (“mourn”). The parallel verb (“withers”) might favor the first option and have the meaning “wilt away.” It is interesting to note, however, that the root appears later in the book in the context of lament (5:16; 8:8, 10; 9:5). Either 1:2 is a possible wordplay to alert the reader to the death that will accompany the judgment (the option of two roots), or perhaps the translation “mourns” is appropriate here as well (cf. KJV, NASB, NKJV, NJPS; see also D. J. A. Clines, “Was There an ’BL II ‘Be Dry’ in Classical Hebrew?” VT 42 [1992]: 1-10).

⁹ sn Carmel was a region known for its abundant plants and trees. See Isa 33:9; 35:2; Jer 50:19.

¹⁰ sn Loss of a land’s fertility is frequently associated with judgment in the OT and ancient Near Eastern literature.

¹¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

¹² tn Heb “the one who sits.” Some translations take this expression as a collective singular referring to the inhabitants rather than the ruler (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).

¹³ sn Ashdod was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashkelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath).

¹⁴ sn Ashkelon was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath).

¹⁵ sn Ekron was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Gath).

¹⁶ tn Heb “I will turn my hand against Ekron.” For other uses of the idiom, “turn the hand against,” see Ps 81:14; Isa 1:25; Jer 6:9; Zech 13:7.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and the remnant of the Philistines will perish.” The translation above assumes that reference is made to other Philistines beside those living in the cities mentioned. Another option is to translate, “Every last Philistine will die.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “he;” the referent (Amos) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ sn The Lord, in his role of warrior-king, is compared to a lion. See 3:4, 8.

²⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²¹ tn Heb “gives his voice.”

²² tn Lexicographers debate whether there are two roots אָבַל (’aval), one signifying “mourn” and the other “be dry,” or simply one (“mourn”). The parallel verb (“withers”) might favor the first option and have the meaning “wilt away.” It is interesting to note, however, that the root appears later in the book in the context of lament (5:16; 8:8, 10; 9:5). Either 1:2 is a possible wordplay to alert the reader to the death that will accompany the judgment (the option of two roots), or perhaps the translation “mourns” is appropriate here as well (cf. KJV, NASB, NKJV, NJPS; see also D. J. A. Clines, “Was There an ’BL II ‘Be Dry’ in Classical Hebrew?” VT 42 [1992]: 1-10).

²³ sn Carmel was a region known for its abundant plants and trees. See Isa 33:9; 35:2; Jer 50:19.

²⁴ sn Loss of a land’s fertility is frequently associated with judgment in the OT and ancient Near Eastern literature.

²⁵ sn Gaza was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath). It was considered to mark the southern limit of Canaan at the point on the coast where it was located (Gen 10:19).

²⁶ 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.

²⁷ tn Heb “Because of three violations of Gaza, even because of four.”

²⁸ 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.

²⁹ tn Heb “[group of] exiles.” A number of English translations take this as a collective singular and translate it with a plural (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV).

³⁰ tn Heb “in order to hand them over.”

³¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³² tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

³³ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

³⁴ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

³⁵ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

³⁶ sn See further Jer 46:2-28 for the judgment against Egypt.

³⁷ tn The meaning of this term and its connection with the preceding is somewhat uncertain. This word is used of the mixture of foreign people who accompanied Israel out of Egypt (Exod 12:38) and of the foreigners that the Israelites were to separate out of their midst in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 13:3). Most commentators interpret it here of the foreign people who were living in Egypt. (See BDB 786 s.v. I עֶרֶב and KBL 733 s.v. II עֶרֶב.)

³⁸ sn The land of Uz was Job’s homeland (Job 1:1). The exact location is unknown but its position here between Egypt and the Philistine cities suggests it is south of Judah, probably in the Arabian peninsula. Lam 4:21 suggests that it was near Edom.

³⁹ sn See further Jer 47:1-7 for the judgment against the Philistines. The Philistine cities were west of Judah.

⁴⁰ sn The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Ashdod had been destroyed under the Pharaoh who preceded Necho, Psammetichus.

⁴¹ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” For this same construction see 14:1; 46:1 and see the translator’s note at 14:1 for explanation.

⁴² sn The precise dating of this prophecy is uncertain. Several proposals have been suggested, the most likely of which is that the prophecy was delivered in 609 b.c. in conjunction with Pharaoh Necho’s advance into Palestine to aid the Assyrians. That was the same year that Josiah was killed by Necho at the battle of Megiddo and four years before Necho was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, the foe from the north. The prophecy presupposes that Ashkelon is still in existence (v. 5) hence it must be before 604 b.c. For a fairly complete discussion of the options see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 299-300.

⁴³ tn The present translation presupposes a Hiphil perfect of יָבֵשׁ (yavesh, “be dry”; cf. NRSV “are withered”) rather than the usually accepted Hiphil of בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “be ashamed”; cf. KJV, ASV), a sense that is less suitable with the removal of hope.

⁴⁴ tn Heb “and I will take away their blood from their mouth and their abominations from between their teeth.” These expressions refer to some type of abominable religious practices, perhaps eating meat with the blood still in it (less likely NCV “drinking blood”) or eating unclean or forbidden foods.

⁴⁵ tn Heb “and they will be a remnant for our God”; cf. NIV “will belong to our God”; NLT “will worship our God.”