Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ¹  in a city, do people not fear? ² 

If disaster overtakes a ³  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁴ 

Amos 4:8

4:8 People from ⁵  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ⁶  water,

but remained thirsty. ⁷ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 4:7

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ⁸ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ⁹  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

Amos 4:6

4:6 “But surely I gave ¹⁰  you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live. ¹¹ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ¹²  will have only a hundred left;

the town ¹³  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ¹⁴  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ¹⁵ 

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ¹⁶ 

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

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ¹⁷  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ¹⁸  the city of Samaria ¹⁹  and everything in it.”

Amos 7:17

7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets ²⁰ 

and your sons and daughters will die violently. ²¹ 

Your land will be given to others ²² 

and you will die in a foreign ²³  land.

Israel will certainly be carried into exile ²⁴  away from its land.’”

Amos 9:14

9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; ²⁵ 

they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble ²⁶  and settle down. ²⁷ 

They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; ²⁸ 

they will grow orchards ²⁹  and eat the fruit they produce. ³⁰ 

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ² tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[4:8]  ⁵ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ⁷ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:7]  ⁹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:6]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).

[4:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.

[5:3]  ¹⁷ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ²⁰ 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).

[6:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ²² tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ²³ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ²⁴ 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.

[7:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”

[7:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”

[7:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”

[7:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).

[7:17]  ²⁹ tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.

[9:14]  ²⁹ tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).

[9:14]  ³⁰ tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”

[9:14]  ³¹ tn Or “and live [in them].”

[9:14]  ³² tn Heb “drink their wine.”

[9:14]  ³³ tn Or “gardens.”

[9:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “eat their fruit.”