5:18 Woe 1 to those who wish for the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?
It will bring darkness, not light.
6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. 2
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:
“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;
I hate their 3 fortresses.
I will hand over to their enemies 4 the city of Samaria 5 and everything in it.”
7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw 6 the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. 7 It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.
1 tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.
2 tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”
3 tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.
4 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.
3 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
4 tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).