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 5:8

5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;

he can turn the darkness into morning

and daylight ⁵  into night.

He summons the water of the seas

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name!

Amos 9:12

9:12 As a result they ⁶  will conquer those left in Edom ⁷ 

and all the nations subject to my rule.” ⁸ 

The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!

Amos 4:13

4:13 For here he is!

He ⁹  formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals ¹⁰  his plans ¹¹  to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness ¹² 

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord, the God who commands armies, ¹³  is his name!”

[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?”

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”

[9:12]  ⁹ sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.

[9:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”

[9:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “nations over whom my name is proclaimed.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership, sometimes as a result of conquest. See 2 Sam 12:28.

[4:13]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).

[4:13]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”