2:10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt;
I led you through the wilderness for forty years
so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.
3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against 1 you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up 2 from the land of Egypt:
8:8 Because of this the earth 3 will quake, 4
and all who live in it will mourn.
The whole earth 5 will rise like the River Nile, 6
it will surge upward 7 and then grow calm, 8 like the Nile in Egypt. 9
9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. 10
He touches the earth and it dissolves; 11
all who live on it mourn.
The whole earth 12 rises like the River Nile, 13
and then grows calm 14 like the Nile in Egypt. 15
3:9 Make this announcement in 16 the fortresses of Ashdod
and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.
Say this:
“Gather on the hills around Samaria! 17
Observe the many acts of violence 18 taking place within the city, 19
the oppressive deeds 20 occurring in it.” 21
4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. 22
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses 23 rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” 24 says the Lord.
“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor 25 and the Arameans from Kir. 26
1 tn Or “about.”
2 tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the
1 tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).
2 tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the
3 tn Heb “all of it.”
4 tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.
5 tn Or “churn.”
6 tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.
7 tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.
1 tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.
3 tn Heb “all of it.”
4 tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Or “sinks back down.”
6 sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.
1 tn Heb “on” or “over” (also later in this verse).
2 sn Samaria might refer here both to the region and to the capital city (later known as Sebaste). On the other hand, there actually are hills that surround the mound upon which the city was built. The implication is that the nations can come and sit and see from those hills the sin of the capital city and its judgment.
3 tn The Hebrew noun carries the nuance of “panic” or “confusion.” Here it refers metonymically to the violent deeds that terrorize the oppressed.
4 tn Heb “in her midst” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “among her people.”
5 tn The translation assumes the form is an abstract plural (see Job 35:9; Eccl 4:1). Another option is to understand the form as a substantival passive participle and translate, “the oppressed” (so KJV).
6 tn Heb “within her.”
1 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
2 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
1 tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.
2 sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.
3 tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.