Amos 3:2

3:2 “I have chosen ¹  you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Amos 4:11

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God ²  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ³ 

You were like a burning stick ⁴  snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 7:4

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁵  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁶  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

Amos 9:11

The Restoration of the Davidic Dynasty

9:11 “In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut ⁷  of David.

I will seal its ⁸  gaps,

repair its ⁹  ruins,

and restore it to what it was like in days gone by. ¹⁰ 

[3:2]  ¹ 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.”

[4:11]  ² tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:11]  ³ tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

[4:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “like that which is burning.”

[7:4]  ³ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[9:11]  ⁴ tn The phrase translated “collapsing hut” refers to a temporary shelter (cf. NASB, NRSV “booth”) in disrepair and emphasizes the relatively weakened condition of the once powerful Davidic dynasty. Others have suggested that the term refers to Jerusalem, while still others argue that it should be repointed to read “Sukkoth,” a garrison town in Transjordan. Its reconstruction would symbolize the rebirth of the Davidic empire and its return to power (e.g., M. E. Polley, Amos and the Davidic Empire, 71-74).

[9:11]  ⁵ tc The MT reads a third feminine plural suffix, which could refer to the two kingdoms (Judah and Israel) or, more literally, to the breaches in the walls of the cities that are mentioned in v. 4 (cf. 4:3). Some emend to third feminine singular, since the “hut” of the preceding line (a feminine singular noun) might be the antecedent. In that case, the final nun (ן) is virtually dittographic with the vav (ו) that appears at the beginning of the following word.

[9:11]  ⁶ tc The MT reads a third masculine singular suffix, which could refer back to David. However, it is possible that an original third feminine singular suffix (יה-, yod-hey) has been misread as masculine (יו-, yod-vav). In later Hebrew script a ה (he) resembles a יו- (yod-vav) combination.

[9:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I will rebuild as in days of antiquity.”