Amos 2:9-10

2:9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. ¹ 

They were as tall as cedars ² 

and as strong as oaks,

but I destroyed the fruit on their branches ³ 

and their roots in the ground. ⁴ 

2:10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt;

I led you through the wilderness for forty years

so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ⁵ 

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ⁶  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ⁷  the city of Samaria ⁸  and everything in it.”

Amos 9:9

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ⁹ 

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mippÿney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[2:9]  ² tn Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”

[2:9]  ³ tn Heb “his fruit from above.”

[2:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and his roots from below.”

[6:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ⁷ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ⁸ 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.

[9:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).