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 ¹  into night.

He summons the water of the seas

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name!

Amos 5:16

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins ²  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ³  says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing,

in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ⁴ 

They will tell the field workers ⁵  to lament

and the professional mourners ⁶  to wail.

[5:8]  ¹ tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”

[5:16]  ² tn Heb “Therefore.” This logical connector relates back to the accusation of vv. 10-13, not to the parenthetical call to repentance in vv. 14-15. To indicate this clearly, the phrase “Because of Israel’s sins” is used in the translation.

[5:16]  ³ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[5:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will say, ‘Ah! Ah!’” The Hebrew term הוֹ (ho, “ah, woe”) is an alternate form of הוֹי (hoy), a word used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow. See 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5. This wordplay follows quickly, as v. 18 begins with הוֹי (“woe”).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Or “farmers” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[5:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “those who know lamentation.”