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 8:3

8:3 The women singing in the temple ³  will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ⁴  Be quiet!”

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. ⁵ 

Amos 9:12-13

9:12 As a result they ⁶  will conquer those left in Edom ⁷ 

and all the nations subject to my rule.” ⁸ 

The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!

9:13 “Be sure of this, ⁹  the time is ¹⁰  coming,” says the Lord,

“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ¹¹ 

and the one who stomps the grapes ¹²  will overtake ¹³  the planter. ¹⁴ 

Juice will run down the slopes, ¹⁵ 

it will flow down all the hillsides. 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.

[8:3]  ³ tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).

[8:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”

[9:9]  ⁵ 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).

[9:12]  ⁷ sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.

[9:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”

[9:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “nations over whom my name is proclaimed.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership, sometimes as a result of conquest. See 2 Sam 12:28.

[9:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[9:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the days are.”

[9:13]  ¹¹ sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.

[9:13]  ¹² sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[9:13]  ¹⁴ sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.

[9:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.

[9:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”