Amos 2:15

2:15 Archers ¹  will not hold their ground; ² 

fast runners will not save their lives,

nor will those who ride horses. ³ 

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ⁴  in a city, do people not fear? ⁵ 

If disaster overtakes a ⁶  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁷ 

Amos 3:11

3:11 Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. ⁸ 

He will take away your power; ⁹ 

your fortresses will be looted.”

Amos 3:15

3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ¹⁰ 

The houses filled with ivory ¹¹  will be ruined,

the great ¹²  houses will be swept away.” ¹³ 

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 4:2

4:2 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ¹⁴ 

“Certainly the time is approaching ¹⁵ 

when you will be carried away ¹⁶  in baskets, ¹⁷ 

every last one of you ¹⁸  in fishermen’s pots. ¹⁹ 

Amos 5:22

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, ²⁰  I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. ²¹ 

Amos 7:7

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ²²  the sovereign One ²³  standing by a tin ²⁴  wall holding tin in his hand.

Amos 7:12

7:12 Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! ²⁵  Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living ²⁶  and prophesy there!

[2:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the one who holds the bow.”

[2:15]  ² tn For the idiom of “holding [or “standing”] one’s ground” in battle, there is a similar phrase in Ezek 13:5; also related is the expression “to hold one’s own against” (or “to withstand”) in Judg 2:14; 2 Kgs 10:4; Dan 8:7 (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 97). Other options include “will not endure” or “will not survive.”

[2:15]  ³ tn The last two lines read literally, “The one fast in his feet will not rescue [his life], and the rider of the horse will not rescue his life.” The phrase “his life” does double duty in the parallelism and should be understood in both lines.

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[3:11]  ⁷ tc The MT reads “an enemy and around the land.” It is also possible to take the MT as an exclamation (“an enemy, and all about the land!”; see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 118; NJPS; cf. NLT).Most scholars and versions emend the text to יְסוֹבֵב (yÿsovev, Polel imperfect), “will encircle.”

[3:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “He will bring down your power from you.” Some emend the text to read “Your power will be brought down from you.” The shift, however, from an active to a passive sense also appears at 3:14 (“I will destroy Bethel’s altars. The horns of the altar will be cut off.”) The pronouns (“your…you”) are feminine singular, indicating that the personified city of Samaria is addressed here. Samaria’s “power” here is her defenses and/or wealth.

[3:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”

[3:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.

[3:15]  ¹² tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”

[3:15]  ¹³ tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.

[4:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “swears by his holiness.”

[4:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, certainly days are coming upon you”; NRSV “the time is surely coming upon you.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “one will carry you away”; NASB “they will take you away.”

[4:2]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word translated “baskets” is uncertain. The translation follows the suggestion of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (130-32): “shields” (cf. NEB); “ropes”; “thorns,” which leads to the most favored interpretation, “hooks” (cf. NASB “meat hooks”; NIV, NRSV “hooks”); “baskets,” and (derived from “baskets”) “boats.” Against the latter, it is unlikely that Amos envisioned a deportation by boat for the inhabitants of Samaria! See also the note on the expression “fishermen’s pots” later in this verse.

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “your children”; KJV “your posterity.”

[4:2]  ¹⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression translated “in fishermen’s pots” is uncertain. The translation follows that of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (132-33): “thorns,” understood by most modern interpreters to mean (by extension) “fishhooks” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV); “boats,” but as mentioned in the previous note on the word “baskets,” a deportation of the Samaritans by boat is geographically unlikely; and “pots,” referring to a container used for packing fish (cf. NEB “fish-baskets”). Paul (p. 134) argues that the imagery comes from the ancient fishing industry. When hauled away into exile, the women of Samaria will be like fish packed and transported to market.

[5:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”

[5:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”

[7:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ²⁰ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[7:12]  ²² tn Traditionally, “seer.” The word is a synonym for “prophet,” though it may carry a derogatory tone on the lips of Amaziah.

[7:12]  ²³ tn Heb “Eat bread there.”