Amos 7:13

7:13 Don’t prophesy at Bethel ¹  any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” ² 

Isaiah 30:10

30:10 They ³  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ⁴ 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ⁵ 

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ⁶ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ⁷ 

¹ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

⁵ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

⁶ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

⁷ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).