2:12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine; 1
you commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy!’
7:12 Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! 2 Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living 3 and prophesy there! 7:13 Don’t prophesy at Bethel 4 any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” 5
7:14 Amos replied 6 to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. 7 No, 8 I was a herdsman who also took care of 9 sycamore fig trees. 10 7:15 Then the Lord took me from tending 11 flocks and gave me this commission, 12 ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’ 7:16 So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach 13 against the family of Isaac!’
7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets 14
and your sons and daughters will die violently. 15
Your land will be given to others 16
and you will die in a foreign 17 land.
Israel will certainly be carried into exile 18 away from its land.’”
32:18 For I am full of words,
and the spirit within me 19 constrains me. 20
32:19 Inside I am like wine which has no outlet, 21
like new wineskins 22 ready to burst!
20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.
I will not speak as his messenger 23 any more.”
But then 24 his message becomes like a fire
locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. 25
I grow weary of trying to hold it in;
I cannot contain it.
5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with Sapphira his wife, sold a piece of property.
1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, 32 whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.
1 sn Nazirites were strictly forbidden to drink wine (Num 6:2-3).
2 tn Traditionally, “seer.” The word is a synonym for “prophet,” though it may carry a derogatory tone on the lips of Amaziah.
3 tn Heb “Eat bread there.”
4 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
5 tn Heb “for it is a temple of a king and it is a royal house.” It is possible that the phrase “royal house” refers to a temple rather than a palace. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 243.
6 tn Heb “replied and said.” The phrase “and said” is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been included in the translation.
7 tn Heb “I was not a prophet nor was I the son of a prophet.” The phrase “son of a prophet” refers to one who was trained in a prophetic guild. Since there is no equative verb present in the Hebrew text, another option is to translate with the present tense, “I am not a prophet by profession.” In this case Amos, though now carrying out a prophetic ministry (v. 15), denies any official or professional prophetic status. Modern English versions are divided about whether to understand the past (JB, NIV, NKJV) or present tense (NASB, NEB, NRSV, NJPS) here.
8 tn Heb “for.”
9 tn Heb “gashed”; or “pierced.”
10 sn It is possible that herdsmen agreed to care for sycamore fig trees in exchange for grazing rights. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 116-17. Since these trees do not grow around Tekoa but rather in the lowlands, another option is that Amos owned other property outside his hometown. In this case, this verse demonstrates his relative wealth and is his response to Amaziah; he did not depend on prophecy as a profession (v. 13).
11 tn Heb “from [following] after.”
12 tn Heb “and the
13 tn The verb, which literally means “to drip,” appears to be a synonym of “to prophesy,” but it might carry a derogatory tone here, perhaps alluding to the impassioned, frenzied way in which prophets sometimes delivered their messages. If so, one could translate, “to drivel; to foam at the mouth” (see HALOT 694 s.v. נטף).
14 tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”
15 tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”
16 tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”
17 tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).
18 tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.
19 tn Heb “the spirit of my belly.”
20 tn The verb צוּק (tsuq) means “to constrain; to urge; to press.” It is used in Judg 14:17; 16:16 with the sense of wearing someone down with repeated entreaties. Elihu cannot withhold himself any longer.
21 tn Heb “in my belly I am like wine that is not opened” (a Niphal imperfect), meaning sealed up with no place to escape.
22 tc The Hebrew text has כְּאֹבוֹת חֲדָשִׁים (kÿ’ovot khadashim), traditionally rendered “like new wineskins.” But only here does the phrase have this meaning. The LXX has “smiths” for “new,” thus “like smith’s bellows.” A. Guillaume connects the word with an Arabic word for a wide vessel for wine shaped like a cup (“Archaeological and philological note on Job 32:19,” PEQ 93 [1961]: 147-50). Some have been found in archaeological sites. The poor would use skins, the rich would use jars. The key to putting this together is the verb at the end of the line, יִבָּקֵעַ (yibbaqea’, “that are ready to burst”). The point of the statement is that Elihu is bursting to speak, and until now has not had the opening.
23 tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the
24 tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.
25 sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.
26 tn Grk “for we are not able not to speak about what we have seen and heard,” but the double negative, which cancels out in English, is emphatic in Greek. The force is captured somewhat by the English translation “it is impossible for us not to speak…” although this is slightly awkward.
27 tn Grk “the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.
28 tn Or “speak.”
29 tn Grk “apostles answered and said.”
30 sn Obey. See 4:19. This response has Jewish roots (Dan 3:16-18; 2 Macc 7:2; Josephus, Ant. 17.6.3 [17.159].
31 tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).
32 tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.