1:14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s 1 city wall; 2
fire 3 will consume her fortresses.
War cries will be heard on the day of battle; 4
a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. 5
8:8 Because of this the earth 6 will quake, 7
and all who live in it will mourn.
The whole earth 8 will rise like the River Nile, 9
it will surge upward 10 and then grow calm, 11 like the Nile in Egypt. 12
1 sn Rabbah was the Ammonite capital.
2 sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.
3 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “with a war cry in the day of battle.”
5 tn Heb “with wind in the day of the windstorm.”
sn A windstorm is a metaphor for judgment and destruction in the OT (see Isa 29:6; Jer 23:19) and ancient Near Eastern literature.
6 tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).
7 tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the
8 tn Heb “all of it.”
9 tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.
sn The movement of the quaking earth is here compared to the annual flooding and receding of the River Nile.
10 tn Or “churn.”
11 tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.
12 tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.