Amos 6:11

6:11 Indeed, look! The Lord is giving the command. ¹ 

He will smash the large house to bits,

and the small house into little pieces.

Amos 3:15

3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ² 

The houses filled with ivory ³  will be ruined,

the great ⁴  houses will be swept away.” ⁵ 

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 4:9

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ⁶  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ⁷  devouring your orchards, ⁸  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 9:1

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ⁹  standing by the altar ¹⁰  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ¹¹  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ¹² 

and I will kill the survivors ¹³  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ¹⁴ 

no one will be able to escape. ¹⁵ 

[6:11]  ¹ tn Or “is issuing the decree.”

[3:15]  ² tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”

[3:15]  ⁵ tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.

[4:9]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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).

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Or “gardens.”

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ⁵ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”