5:11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops 1
and exact a grain tax from them,
you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,
nor will you drink the wine from the fine 2 vineyards you planted. 3
5:16 Because of Israel’s sins 4 this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, 5 says:
“In all the squares there will be wailing,
in all the streets they will mourn the dead. 6
They will tell the field workers 7 to lament
and the professional mourners 8 to wail.
7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets 9
and your sons and daughters will die violently. 10
Your land will be given to others 11
and you will die in a foreign 12 land.
Israel will certainly be carried into exile 13 away from its land.’”
1 tn Traditionally, “because you trample on the poor” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The traditional view derives the verb from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”; cf. Isa. 14:25), but more likely it is cognate to an Akkadian verb meaning “to exact an agricultural tax” (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 172-73).
2 tn Or “lovely”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “pleasant”; NAB “choice”; NIV “lush.”
3 tn Heb “Houses of chiseled stone you built, but you will not live in them. Fine vineyards you planted, but you will not drink their wine.”
4 tn Heb “Therefore.” This logical connector relates back to the accusation of vv. 10-13, not to the parenthetical call to repentance in vv. 14-15. To indicate this clearly, the phrase “Because of Israel’s sins” is used in the translation.
5 tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
6 tn Heb “they will say, ‘Ah! Ah!’” The Hebrew term הוֹ (ho, “ah, woe”) is an alternate form of הוֹי (hoy), a word used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow. See 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5. This wordplay follows quickly, as v. 18 begins with הוֹי (“woe”).
7 tn Or “farmers” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
8 tn Heb “those who know lamentation.”
7 tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”
8 tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”
9 tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”
10 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).
11 tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.