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! ¹ 

Amos 7:12

7:12 Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! ²  Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living ³  and prophesy there!

Amos 7:15

7:15 Then the Lord took me from tending ⁴  flocks and gave me this commission, ⁵  ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’

[4:12]  ¹ 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.

[7:12]  ² tn Traditionally, “seer.” The word is a synonym for “prophet,” though it may carry a derogatory tone on the lips of Amaziah.

[7:12]  ³ tn Heb “Eat bread there.”

[7:15]  ³ tn Heb “from [following] after.”

[7:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord said to me.”