Amos 7:16-17

7:16 So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach ¹  against the family of Isaac!’

7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets ² 

and your sons and daughters will die violently. ³ 

Your land will be given to others ⁴ 

and you will die in a foreign ⁵  land.

Israel will certainly be carried into exile ⁶  away from its land.’”

[7:16]  ¹ tn The verb, which literally means “to drip,” appears to be a synonym of “to prophesy,” but it might carry a derogatory tone here, perhaps alluding to the impassioned, frenzied way in which prophets sometimes delivered their messages. If so, one could translate, “to drivel; to foam at the mouth” (see HALOT 694 s.v. נטף).

[7:17]  ² tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”

[7:17]  ³ tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”

[7:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”

[7:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).

[7:17]  ⁶ tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.