Discovery BoxAmos 4:4-13
Context4:4 “Go to Bethel 1 and rebel! 2
At Gilgal 3 rebel some more!
Bring your sacrifices in 4 the morning,
your tithes on 5 the third day!
4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! 6
Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! 7
For you love to do this, you Israelites.”
The sovereign Lord is speaking!
4:6 “But surely I gave 8 you no food to eat in any of your cities;
you lacked food everywhere you live. 9
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. 10
I gave rain to one city, but not to another.
One field 11 would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
4:8 People from 12 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 13 water,
but remained thirsty. 14
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:9 “I destroyed your crops 15 with blight and disease.
Locusts kept 16 devouring your orchards, 17 vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. 18
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses 19 rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God 20 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 21
You were like a burning stick 22 snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
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! 23
4:13 For here he is!
He 24 formed the mountains and created the wind.
He reveals 25 his plans 26 to men.
He turns the dawn into darkness 27
and marches on the heights of the earth.
The Lord, the God who commands armies, 28 is his name!”
[4:4] 1 sn Bethel and Gilgal were important formal worship centers because of their importance in Israel’s history. Here the Lord ironically urges the people to visit these places so they can increase their sin against him. Their formal worship, because it was not accompanied by social justice, only made them more guilty in God’s sight by adding hypocrisy to their list of sins. Obviously, theirs was a twisted view of the Lord. They worshiped a god of their own creation in order to satisfy their religious impulses (see 4:5: “For you love to do this”). Note that none of the rituals listed in 4:4-5 have to do with sin.
[4:4] 2 tn The Hebrew word translated “rebel” (also in the following line) could very well refer here to Israel’s violations of their covenant with God (see also the term “crimes” in 1:3 [with note] and the phrase “covenant transgressions” in 2:4 [with note]; 3:14).
[4:4] 3 sn See the note on Bethel earlier in this verse.
[4:5] 6 sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.
[4:5] 7 tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”
[4:6] 8 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] 9 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.
[4:7] 10 sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.
[4:7] 11 tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.
[4:8] 12 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[4:8] 14 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
[4:9] 15 tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.
[4:9] 16 tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).
[4:10] 18 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
[4:10] 19 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
[4:11] 20 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
[4:11] 21 tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
[4:11] 22 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”
[4:12] 23 tn The
[4:13] 24 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] 25 tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).
[4:13] 26 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] 27 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
