Amos 3:1-2

Every Effect has its Cause

3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ²  from the land of Egypt: 3:2 “I have chosen ³  you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Amos 8:8

8:8 Because of this the earth ⁴  will quake, ⁵ 

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth ⁶  will rise like the River Nile, ⁷ 

it will surge upward ⁸  and then grow calm, ⁹  like the Nile in Egypt. ¹⁰ 

Amos 9:5

9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. ¹¹ 

He touches the earth and it dissolves; ¹² 

all who live on it mourn.

The whole earth ¹³  rises like the River Nile, ¹⁴ 

and then grows calm ¹⁵  like the Nile in Egypt. ¹⁶ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Or “about.”

[3:1]  ² tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the Lord apparently refers to himself in the third person in the preceding sentence. This first person form, however, serves to connect this message to the earlier indictment (2:10) and anticipates the words of the following verse.

[3:2]  ³ tn Heb “You only have I known.” The Hebrew verb יָדַע (yada’) is used here in its covenantal sense of “recognize in a special way.”

[8:8]  ⁵ tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).

[8:8]  ⁶ tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “all of it.”

[8:8]  ⁸ tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.

[8:8]  ⁹ tn Or “churn.”

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ⁷ tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ⁸ tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.

[9:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “all of it.”

[9:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “sinks back down.”

[9:5]  ¹² sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.