Amos 7:14

7:14 Amos replied ¹  to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. ²  No, ³  I was a herdsman who also took care of ⁴  sycamore fig trees. ⁵ 

Amos 2:13

2:13 Look! I will press you down,

like a cart loaded down with grain presses down. ⁶ 

Amos 5:1

Death is Imminent

5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, ⁷  family ⁸  of Israel:

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ⁹ 

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ¹⁰  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ¹¹  the city of Samaria ¹²  and everything in it.”

Amos 9:9

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹³ 

Amos 4:7

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ¹⁴ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ¹⁵  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

[7:14]  ¹ tn Heb “replied and said.” The phrase “and said” is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been included in the translation.

[7:14]  ² tn Heb “I was not a prophet nor was I the son of a prophet.” The phrase “son of a prophet” refers to one who was trained in a prophetic guild. Since there is no equative verb present in the Hebrew text, another option is to translate with the present tense, “I am not a prophet by profession.” In this case Amos, though now carrying out a prophetic ministry (v. 15), denies any official or professional prophetic status. Modern English versions are divided about whether to understand the past (JB, NIV, NKJV) or present tense (NASB, NEB, NRSV, NJPS) here.

[7:14]  ³ tn Heb “for.”

[7:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “gashed”; or “pierced.”

[7:14]  ⁵ sn It is possible that herdsmen agreed to care for sycamore fig trees in exchange for grazing rights. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 116-17. Since these trees do not grow around Tekoa but rather in the lowlands, another option is that Amos owned other property outside his hometown. In this case, this verse demonstrates his relative wealth and is his response to Amaziah; he did not depend on prophecy as a profession (v. 13).

[2:13]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of this verse is unclear. Various suggested meanings have been proposed (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 94): (1) One option is to relate the verb to an Arabic verb, meaning “to hinder; to hamper,” and translate, “I am making you immobile, like a cart filled with grain is immobile.” In this case, the Lord refers to Israel’s inability to escape his coming judgment (see vv. 14-16; NJPS). (2) Another view relates the verb to a different Arabic verb meaning “to cut in pieces,” translating “I will cut you in pieces as a cart cuts in pieces [the earth],” referring to the ruts and rifts in the ground caused by an earthquake. (3) Some relate the verb to an Arabic root meaning “to groan” with the idea that the Lord causes the ground underneath Israel to groan (cf. NLT). (4) The translation connects the verb to an Aramaism signifying to “press down” (cf. NIV, NRSV). Some English versions translate the verb in an intransitive sense as “I am weighted down” (cf. NASB, NKJV) or “I groan beneath you” (NEB). For this last option, see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 334.

[5:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Listen to this word which I am about to take up against you, a funeral song.”

[5:1]  ¹² tn Heb “house.”

[6:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ¹⁸ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[9:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).

[4:7]  ²⁶ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.