Amos 4:3

4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; ¹ 

you will be thrown out ²  toward Harmon.” ³ 

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 9:3

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ⁴  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ⁵  I would command the Sea Serpent ⁶  to bite them.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and [through the] breaches you will go out, each straight ahead.”

[4:3]  ² tn The Hiphil verb form has no object. It may be intransitive (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 425), though many emend it to a Hophal.

[4:3]  ³ tn The meaning of this word is unclear. Many understand it as a place name, though such a location is not known. Some (e.g., H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia[, 204) emend to “Hermon” or to similarly written words, such as “the dung heap” (NEB, NJPS), “the garbage dump” (NCV), or “the fortress” (cf. NLT “your fortresses”).

[9:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ⁶ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.