Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ² 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ³ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁴ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁵ 

Amos 9:3

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ⁶  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ⁷  I would command the Sea Serpent ⁸  to bite them.

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ² tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  ³ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[9:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ⁸ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.