Amos 8:1

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  a basket of summer fruit. ² 

Amos 7:7

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ³  the sovereign One ⁴  standing by a tin ⁵  wall holding tin in his hand.

Amos 6:2

6:2 They say to the people: ⁶ 

“Journey over to Calneh and look at it!

Then go from there to Hamath-Rabbah! ⁷ 

Then go down to Gath of the Philistines!

Are they superior to our two ⁸  kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?” ⁹ 

Amos 7:1

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹⁰  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ¹¹  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ¹² )

Amos 7:4

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹³  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ¹⁴  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

Amos 3:9

Samaria Will Fall

3:9 Make this announcement in ¹⁵  the fortresses of Ashdod

and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.

Say this:

“Gather on the hills around Samaria! ¹⁶ 

Observe the many acts of violence ¹⁷  taking place within the city, ¹⁸ 

the oppressive deeds ¹⁹  occurring in it.” ²⁰ 

Amos 7:8

7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin. ²¹ 

Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ²²  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ²³ 

Amos 9:1

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ²⁴  standing by the altar ²⁵  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ²⁶  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ²⁷ 

and I will kill the survivors ²⁸  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ²⁹ 

no one will be able to escape. ³⁰ 

[8:1]  ¹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:1]  ² sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ⁴ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[6:2]  ⁵ tn The words “They say to the people” are interpretive and supplied in the translation for clarification. The translation understands v. 2 as the boastful words, which the leaders (described in v. 1) spoke to those who came to them (v. 1b). Some interpret v. 2 differently, understanding the words as directed to the leaders by the prophet. Verse 2b would then be translated: “Are you (i.e., Israel and Judah) better than these kingdoms (i.e., Calneh, etc.)? Is your border larger than their border?” (This reading requires an emendation of the Hebrew text toward the end of the verse.) In this case the verse is a reminder to Judah/Israel that they are not superior to other nations, which have already fallen victim to military conquest. Consequently Judah/Israel should not expect to escape the same fate. Following this line of interpretation, some take v. 2 as a later addition since the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser III conquered Calneh, Hamath, and Gath after the time of Amos’ ministry. However, this conclusion is not necessary since the kingdoms mentioned here had suffered military setbacks prior to Amos’ time as well. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 201-4.

[6:2]  ⁶ tn Or “Great Hamath” (cf. NIV); or “Hamath the great” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); the word “rabbah” means “great” in Hebrew.

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to these,” referring to Judah and Israel (see v. 1a).

[6:2]  ⁸ tn Both rhetorical questions in this verse expect the answer “no.” If these words do come from the leaders, then this verse underscores their self-delusion of power (compare 6:13). The prophet had no such mistaken sense of national grandeur (7:2, 5).

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ⁸ sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1]  ⁹ tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[3:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on” or “over” (also later in this verse).

[3:9]  ¹² sn Samaria might refer here both to the region and to the capital city (later known as Sebaste). On the other hand, there actually are hills that surround the mound upon which the city was built. The implication is that the nations can come and sit and see from those hills the sin of the capital city and its judgment.

[3:9]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew noun carries the nuance of “panic” or “confusion.” Here it refers metonymically to the violent deeds that terrorize the oppressed.

[3:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in her midst” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “among her people.”

[3:9]  ¹⁵ tn The translation assumes the form is an abstract plural (see Job 35:9; Eccl 4:1). Another option is to understand the form as a substantival passive participle and translate, “the oppressed” (so KJV).

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “within her.”

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:2]  ¹⁵ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

[8:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ¹⁸ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ²³ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”