3:5 Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait?
Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something?
3:4 Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? 1
Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?
3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
6:12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?
Can one plow the sea with oxen? 2
Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,
and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. 3
9:12 As a result they 4 will conquer those left in Edom 5
and all the nations subject to my rule.” 6
The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!
3:6 If an alarm sounds 7 in a city, do people not fear? 8
If disaster overtakes a 9 city, is the Lord not responsible? 10
8:8 Because of this the earth 11 will quake, 12
and all who live in it will mourn.
The whole earth 13 will rise like the River Nile, 14
it will surge upward 15 and then grow calm, 16 like the Nile in Egypt. 17
1 tn Heb “without having prey [or “food”].”
1 tc Heb “Does one plow with oxen?” This obviously does not fit the parallelism, for the preceding rhetorical question requires the answer, “Of course not!” An error of fusion has occurred in the Hebrew, with the word יָם (yam, “sea”) being accidentally added as a plural ending to the collective noun בָּקָר (baqar, “oxen”). A proper division of the consonants produces the above translation, which fits the parallelism and also anticipates the answer, “Of course not!”
2 sn The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.
1 sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.
2 tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”
3 tn Heb “nations over whom my name is proclaimed.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership, sometimes as a result of conquest. See 2 Sam 12:28.
1 tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”
2 tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”
3 tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”
4 tn Heb “has 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.