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 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 9:4

9:4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ¹⁰ 

from there ¹¹  I will command the sword to kill them.

I will not let them out of my sight;

they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ¹² 

[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?”

[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.

[9:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “Even if they go into captivity before their enemies.”

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will set my eye on them for disaster, not good.”