1:2 Amos 1 said:
“The Lord comes roaring 2 out of Zion;
from Jerusalem 3 he comes bellowing! 4
The shepherds’ pastures wilt; 5
the summit of Carmel 6 withers.” 7
2:3 I will remove 8 Moab’s leader; 9
I will kill all Moab’s 10 officials 11 with him.”
The Lord has spoken!
2:11 I made some of your sons prophets
and some of your young men Nazirites. 12
Is this not true, you Israelites?”
The Lord is speaking!
3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against 13 you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up 14 from the land of Egypt:
3:6 If an alarm sounds 15 in a city, do people not fear? 16
If disaster overtakes a 17 city, is the Lord not responsible? 18
3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)
“They store up 19 the spoils of destructive violence 20 in their fortresses.
3:11 Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. 21
He will take away your power; 22
your fortresses will be looted.”
3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. 23
The houses filled with ivory 24 will be ruined,
the great 25 houses will be swept away.” 26
The Lord is speaking!
4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; 27
you will be thrown out 28 toward Harmon.” 29
The Lord is speaking!
4:8 People from 30 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 31 water,
but remained thirsty. 32
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
5:14 Seek good and not evil so you can live!
Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you,
as you claim he is.
5:20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring 33 darkness, not light –
gloomy blackness, not bright light?
6:11 Indeed, look! The Lord is giving the command. 34
He will smash the large house to bits,
and the small house into little pieces.
“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! 35
How can Jacob survive? 36
He is too weak!” 37
8:3 The women singing in the temple 39 will wail in that day.”
The sovereign Lord is speaking.
“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! 40 Be quiet!”
8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,
and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. 41
9:12 As a result they 42 will conquer those left in Edom 43
and all the nations subject to my rule.” 44
The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!
9:15 I will plant them on their land
and they will never again be uprooted from the 45 land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
1 tn Heb “he;” the referent (Amos) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 sn The
3 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
4 tn Heb “gives his voice.”
5 tn Lexicographers debate whether there are two roots אָבַל (’aval), one signifying “mourn” and the other “be dry,” or simply one (“mourn”). The parallel verb (“withers”) might favor the first option and have the meaning “wilt away.” It is interesting to note, however, that the root appears later in the book in the context of lament (5:16; 8:8, 10; 9:5). Either 1:2 is a possible wordplay to alert the reader to the death that will accompany the judgment (the option of two roots), or perhaps the translation “mourns” is appropriate here as well (cf. KJV, NASB, NKJV, NJPS; see also D. J. A. Clines, “Was There an ’BL II ‘Be Dry’ in Classical Hebrew?” VT 42 [1992]: 1-10).
6 sn Carmel was a region known for its abundant plants and trees. See Isa 33:9; 35:2; Jer 50:19.
7 sn Loss of a land’s fertility is frequently associated with judgment in the OT and ancient Near Eastern literature.
8 tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “root out”; NCV “bring to an end.”
9 tn Heb “the leader [traditionally, “judge”] from her midst.”
10 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Or “princes” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT); TEV, CEV “leaders.”
12 tn Or perhaps “religious devotees” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) refers to one who “consecrated” or “devoted” to God (see Num 6:1-21).
13 tn Or “about.”
14 tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the
15 tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”
16 tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”
17 tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”
18 tn Heb “has the
19 tn Heb “those who.”
20 tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.
21 tc The MT reads “an enemy and around the land.” It is also possible to take the MT as an exclamation (“an enemy, and all about the land!”; see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 118; NJPS; cf. NLT).Most scholars and versions emend the text to יְסוֹבֵב (yÿsovev, Polel imperfect), “will encircle.”
22 tn Heb “He will bring down your power from you.” Some emend the text to read “Your power will be brought down from you.” The shift, however, from an active to a passive sense also appears at 3:14 (“I will destroy Bethel’s altars. The horns of the altar will be cut off.”) The pronouns (“your…you”) are feminine singular, indicating that the personified city of Samaria is addressed here. Samaria’s “power” here is her defenses and/or wealth.
23 tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”
sn Like kings, many in Israel’s wealthy class owned both winter and summer houses (cf. 1 Kgs 21:1,18; Jer 36:22). For a discussion of archaeological evidence relating to these structures, see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 64-65.
24 tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.
25 tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”
26 tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.
27 tn Heb “and [through the] breaches you will go out, each straight ahead.”
28 tn The Hiphil verb form has no object. It may be intransitive (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 425), though many emend it to a Hophal.
29 tn The meaning of this word is unclear. Many understand it as a place name, though such a location is not known. Some (e.g., H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia[, 204) emend to “Hermon” or to similarly written words, such as “the dung heap” (NEB, NJPS), “the garbage dump” (NCV), or “the fortress” (cf. NLT “your fortresses”).
30 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
31 tn Heb “to drink.”
32 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
33 tn Heb “Will not the day of the Lord be.”
34 tn Or “is issuing the decree.”
35 tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
36 tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
37 tn Heb “small.”
38 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).
39 tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).
40 tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”
41 tn Heb “in a day of light.”
42 sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.
43 tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”
44 tn Heb “nations over whom my name is proclaimed.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership, sometimes as a result of conquest. See 2 Sam 12:28.
sn This verse envisions a new era of Israelite rule, perhaps patterned after David’s imperialistic successes (see 2 Sam 8-10). At the same time, however, the verse does not specify how this rule is to be accomplished. Note that the book ends with a description of peace and abundance, and its final reference to God (v. 15) does not include the epithet “the Lord who commands armies,” which has militaristic overtones. This is quite a different scene than what the book began with: nations at war and standing under the judgment of God.
45 tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.