Amos 3:13

3:13 Listen and warn ¹  the family ²  of Jacob! ³ 

The sovereign Lord, the God who commands armies, ⁴  is speaking!

Amos 5:27

5:27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord.

He is called the God who commands armies!

Amos 5:14-15

5:14 Seek good and not evil so you can live!

Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you,

as you claim he is.

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote ⁵  justice at the city gate! ⁶ 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on ⁷  those who are left from ⁸  Joseph. ⁹ 

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ¹⁰ 

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

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ¹¹  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ¹²  the city of Samaria ¹³  and everything in it.”

Amos 6:14

6:14 “Look! I am about to bring ¹⁴  a nation against you, family ¹⁵  of Israel.”

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

“They will oppress ¹⁶  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ¹⁷  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ¹⁸ 

Amos 4:13

4:13 For here he is!

He ¹⁹  formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals ²⁰  his plans ²¹  to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness ²² 

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord, the God who commands armies, ²³  is his name!”

Amos 5:16

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins ²⁴  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²⁵  says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing,

in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ²⁶ 

They will tell the field workers ²⁷  to lament

and the professional mourners ²⁸  to wail.

[3:13]  ¹ tn Or “testify against.”

[3:13]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:13]  ³ tn These words are spoken to either the unidentified heralds addressed at the beginning of v. 9, or to the Egyptians and Philistines (see v. 9b). Another possibility is that one is not to look for a specific addressee but rather appreciate the command simply as a rhetorical device to grab the attention of the listeners and readers of the prophetic message.

[3:13]  ⁴ tn Traditionally, “the God of hosts.”

[5:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

[5:15]  ⁶ sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

[5:15]  ⁷ tn Or “will show favor to.”

[5:15]  ⁸ tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

[5:15]  ⁹ sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[6:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ¹¹ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ¹² 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.

[6:14]  ¹³ tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”

[6:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[6:14]  ¹⁵ sn Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” (לָחַץ, lakhats) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 (עָשַׁק, ’ashaq).

[6:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “from the entrance to Hamath.” The Hebrew term לְבוֹא (lÿvo’) can either be translated or considered a part of the place name.

[6:14]  ¹⁷ sn Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25. Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.

[4:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.

[4:13]  ¹⁸ tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).

[4:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (’adam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.

[4:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Other options include: (1) “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, add the conjunction (“and”) between the two nouns. (2) “He turns darkness into glimmering dawn” (NJPS). See S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 154), who takes שָׁחַר (shakhar) as “blackness” rather than “dawn” and עֵיפָה (’efah) as “glimmering dawn” rather than “darkness.”

[4:13]  ²¹ tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”

[5:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “Therefore.” This logical connector relates back to the accusation of vv. 10-13, not to the parenthetical call to repentance in vv. 14-15. To indicate this clearly, the phrase “Because of Israel’s sins” is used in the translation.

[5:16]  ²² tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[5:16]  ²³ tn Heb “they will say, ‘Ah! Ah!’” The Hebrew term הוֹ (ho, “ah, woe”) is an alternate form of הוֹי (hoy), a word used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow. See 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5. This wordplay follows quickly, as v. 18 begins with הוֹי (“woe”).

[5:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “farmers” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[5:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “those who know lamentation.”