Amos 3:14

3:14 “Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³ 

I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars.

The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

Amos 4:2

4:2 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ⁷ 

“Certainly the time is approaching ⁸ 

when you will be carried away ⁹  in baskets, ¹⁰ 

every last one of you ¹¹  in fishermen’s pots. ¹² 

Amos 4:5

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ¹³ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ¹⁴ 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Amos 4:12

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel! ¹⁵ 

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ¹⁶  will have only a hundred left;

the town ¹⁷  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ¹⁸  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ¹⁹ 

Amos 5:12

5:12 Certainly ²⁰  I am aware of ²¹  your many rebellious acts ²² 

and your numerous sins.

You ²³  torment the innocent, you take bribes,

and you deny justice to ²⁴  the needy at the city gate. ²⁵ 

Amos 6:12

6:12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?

Can one plow the sea with oxen? ²⁶ 

Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,

and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. ²⁷ 

Amos 6:14

6:14 “Look! I am about to bring ²⁸  a nation against you, family ²⁹  of Israel.”

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

“They will oppress ³⁰  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ³¹  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ³² 

Amos 7:2

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

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ³³ 

How can Jacob survive? ³⁴ 

He is too weak!” ³⁵ 

Amos 7:13-14

7:13 Don’t prophesy at Bethel ³⁶  any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” ³⁷ 

7:14 Amos replied ³⁸  to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. ³⁹  No, ⁴⁰  I was a herdsman who also took care of ⁴¹  sycamore fig trees. ⁴² 

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. ⁴³ 

[3:14]  ¹ tn Heb “in the day.”

[3:14]  ² tn Heb “his.” With the referent “Israel” here, this amounts to a collective singular.

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

[3:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “punish” (so NASB, NRSV).

[3:14]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[3:14]  ⁶ 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.

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “swears by his holiness.”

[4:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “Look, certainly days are coming upon you”; NRSV “the time is surely coming upon you.”

[4:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “one will carry you away”; NASB “they will take you away.”

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word translated “baskets” is uncertain. The translation follows the suggestion of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (130-32): “shields” (cf. NEB); “ropes”; “thorns,” which leads to the most favored interpretation, “hooks” (cf. NASB “meat hooks”; NIV, NRSV “hooks”); “baskets,” and (derived from “baskets”) “boats.” Against the latter, it is unlikely that Amos envisioned a deportation by boat for the inhabitants of Samaria! See also the note on the expression “fishermen’s pots” later in this verse.

[4:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “your children”; KJV “your posterity.”

[4:2]  ¹² tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression translated “in fishermen’s pots” is uncertain. The translation follows that of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (132-33): “thorns,” understood by most modern interpreters to mean (by extension) “fishhooks” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV); “boats,” but as mentioned in the previous note on the word “baskets,” a deportation of the Samaritans by boat is geographically unlikely; and “pots,” referring to a container used for packing fish (cf. NEB “fish-baskets”). Paul (p. 134) argues that the imagery comes from the ancient fishing industry. When hauled away into exile, the women of Samaria will be like fish packed and transported to market.

[4:5]  ¹³ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[4:12]  ¹⁹ tn The Lord appears to announce a culminating judgment resulting from Israel’s obstinate refusal to repent. The following verse describes the Lord in his role as sovereign judge, but it does not outline the judgment per se. For this reason F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 450) take the prefixed verbal forms as preterites referring to the series of judgments detailed in vv. 6-11. It is more likely that a coming judgment is in view, but that its details are omitted for rhetorical effect, creating a degree of suspense (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 149-50) that will find its solution in chapter 5. This line is an ironic conclusion to the section begun at 4:4. Israel thought they were meeting the Lord at the sanctuaries, yet they actually had misunderstood how he had been trying to bring them back to himself. Now Israel would truly meet the Lord – not at the sanctuaries, but face-to-face in judgment.

[5:3]  ²⁵ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The one.” The word “town” has been used in the translation in keeping with the relative sizes of the armed contingents sent out by each. It is also possible that this line is speaking of the same city of the previous line. In other words, the contingent sent by that one city would have suffered a ninety-nine percent casualty loss.

[5:3]  ²⁷ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the nation (NEB, NJB, NASB, NKJV). Others suggest that this phrase completes the introductory formula (“The sovereign Lord says this…”; see v. 4a; NJPS). Another option is that the preposition has a vocative force, “O house of Israel” (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 476). Some simply delete the phrase as dittography from the following line (NIV).

[5:12]  ³¹ tn Or “for.”

[5:12]  ³² tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).

[5:12]  ³³ tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.

[5:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Those who.”

[5:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).

[5:12]  ³⁶ sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.

[6:12]  ³⁷ tc Heb “Does one plow with oxen?” This obviously does not fit the parallelism, for the preceding rhetorical question requires the answer, “Of course not!” An error of fusion has occurred in the Hebrew, with the word יָם (yam, “sea”) being accidentally added as a plural ending to the collective noun בָּקָר (baqar, “oxen”). A proper division of the consonants produces the above translation, which fits the parallelism and also anticipates the answer, “Of course not!”

[6:12]  ³⁸ sn The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.

[6:14]  ⁴³ tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”

[6:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[6:14]  ⁴⁵ 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]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ 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.

[7:2]  ⁴⁹ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “small.”

[7:13]  ⁵⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[7:13]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “for it is a temple of a king and it is a royal house.” It is possible that the phrase “royal house” refers to a temple rather than a palace. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 243.

[7:14]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “replied and said.” The phrase “and said” is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been included in the translation.

[7:14]  ⁶² tn Heb “I was not a prophet nor was I the son of a prophet.” The phrase “son of a prophet” refers to one who was trained in a prophetic guild. Since there is no equative verb present in the Hebrew text, another option is to translate with the present tense, “I am not a prophet by profession.” In this case Amos, though now carrying out a prophetic ministry (v. 15), denies any official or professional prophetic status. Modern English versions are divided about whether to understand the past (JB, NIV, NKJV) or present tense (NASB, NEB, NRSV, NJPS) here.

[7:14]  ⁶³ tn Heb “for.”

[7:14]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “gashed”; or “pierced.”

[7:14]  ⁶⁵ sn It is possible that herdsmen agreed to care for sycamore fig trees in exchange for grazing rights. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 116-17. Since these trees do not grow around Tekoa but rather in the lowlands, another option is that Amos owned other property outside his hometown. In this case, this verse demonstrates his relative wealth and is his response to Amaziah; he did not depend on prophecy as a profession (v. 13).

[9:9]  ⁶⁷ 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).