Amos 5:6

5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!

Otherwise he will break out ¹  like fire against Joseph’s ²  family; ³ 

the fire ⁴  will consume

and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁵ 

Amos 6:1

The Party is over for the Rich

6:1 Woe ⁶  to those who live in ease in Zion, ⁷ 

to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

They think of themselves as ⁸  the elite class of the best nation.

The family ⁹  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ¹⁰ 

Amos 8:8

8:8 Because of this the earth ¹¹  will quake, ¹² 

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth ¹³  will rise like the River Nile, ¹⁴ 

it will surge upward ¹⁵  and then grow calm, ¹⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ¹⁷ 

[5:6]  ¹ tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.

[5:6]  ² sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “house.”

[5:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”

[6:1]  ⁶ tn On the Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy; “ah, woe”) as a term of mourning, see the notes in 5:16, 18.

[6:1]  ⁷ sn Zion is a reference to Jerusalem.

[6:1]  ⁸ tn The words “They think of themselves as” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the term נְקֻבֵי (nÿquvey; “distinguished ones, elite”) is in apposition to the substantival participles in the first line.

[6:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[6:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “comes to them.”

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).

[8:8]  ¹² tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[8:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “all of it.”

[8:8]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.

[8:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “churn.”

[8:8]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.

[8:8]  ¹⁷ tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.