3:9 Make this announcement in 1 the fortresses of Ashdod
and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.
Say this:
“Gather on the hills around Samaria! 2
Observe the many acts of violence 3 taking place within the city, 4
the oppressive deeds 5 occurring in it.” 6
“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.
I will no longer overlook their sin. 7
8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end 8 has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. 9
9:1 I saw the sovereign One 10 standing by the altar 11 and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, 12 so the thresholds shake!
Knock them down on the heads of all the people, 13
and I will kill the survivors 14 with the sword.
No one will be able to run away; 15
no one will be able to escape. 16
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.”
7 tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”
13 tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.
14 tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”
19 tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
20 sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.
21 tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.
22 tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”
23 tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.
24 tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”
25 tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”