Amos 3:1

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:

Amos 3:5

3:5 Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait?

Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something?

Amos 3:11

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

He will take away your power; ⁴ 

your fortresses will be looted.”

Amos 3:14

3:14 “Certainly when ⁵  I punish Israel for their ⁶  covenant transgressions, ⁷ 

I will destroy ⁸  Bethel’s ⁹  altars.

The horns ¹⁰  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

Amos 5:8

5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;

he can turn the darkness into morning

and daylight ¹¹  into night.

He summons the water of the seas

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name!

Amos 7:2

7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ¹² 

How can Jacob survive? ¹³ 

He is too weak!” ¹⁴ 

Amos 7:12

7:12 Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! ¹⁵  Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living ¹⁶  and prophesy there!

Amos 8:8-9

8:8 Because of this the earth ¹⁷  will quake, ¹⁸ 

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth ¹⁹  will rise like the River Nile, ²⁰ 

it will surge upward ²¹  and then grow calm, ²²  like the Nile in Egypt. ²³ 

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. ²⁴ 

Amos 9:5

9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. ²⁵ 

He touches the earth and it dissolves; ²⁶ 

all who live on it mourn.

The whole earth ²⁷  rises like the River Nile, ²⁸ 

and then grows calm ²⁹  like the Nile in Egypt. ³⁰ 

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. ³¹ 

[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.

[3:11]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the day.”

[3:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “his.” With the referent “Israel” here, this amounts to a collective singular.

[3:14]  ⁷ tn Traditionally, “transgressions, sins,” but see the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3.

[3:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “punish” (so NASB, NRSV).

[3:14]  ⁹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[3:14]  ¹⁰ sn The horns of an ancient altar projected upwards from the four corners and resembled an animal’s horns in appearance. Fugitives could seek asylum by grabbing hold of these corners (see Exod 21:14; 1 Kgs 1:50; 2:28). When the altar’s horns were cut off, there would be no place of asylum left for the Lord’s enemies.

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”

[7:2]  ⁹ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “small.”

[7:12]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally, “seer.” The word is a synonym for “prophet,” though it may carry a derogatory tone on the lips of Amaziah.

[7:12]  ¹² tn Heb “Eat bread there.”

[8:8]  ¹³ tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).

[8:8]  ¹⁴ tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[8:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all of it.”

[8:8]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “churn.”

[8:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.

[8:8]  ¹⁹ 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.

[8:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[9:5]  ¹⁷ tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all of it.”

[9:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ²¹ tn Or “sinks back down.”

[9:5]  ²² sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.

[9:9]  ¹⁹ 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).