Amos 2:10

2:10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt;

I led you through the wilderness for forty years

so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.

Amos 2:14

2:14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; 1 

strong men will have no strength left; 2 

warriors will not be able to save their lives.

Amos 4:12

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel! 3 

Amos 5:14

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.

Amos 5:18-19

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe 4  to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

5:19 Disaster will be inescapable, 5 

as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,

then escaped 6  into a house,

leaned his hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Amos 8:9

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. 7 

Amos 9:8

9:8 Look, the sovereign Lord is watching 8  the sinful nation, 9 

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

But I will not completely destroy the family 10  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

1 tn Heb “and a place of refuge will perish from the swift.”

2 tn Heb “the strong will not increase his strength.”

3 tn The Lord appears to announce a culminating judgment resulting from Israel’s obstinate refusal to repent. The following verse describes the Lord in his role as sovereign judge, but it does not outline the judgment per se. For this reason F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 450) take the prefixed verbal forms as preterites referring to the series of judgments detailed in vv. 6-11. It is more likely that a coming judgment is in view, but that its details are omitted for rhetorical effect, creating a degree of suspense (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 149-50) that will find its solution in chapter 5. This line is an ironic conclusion to the section begun at 4:4. Israel thought they were meeting the Lord at the sanctuaries, yet they actually had misunderstood how he had been trying to bring them back to himself. Now Israel would truly meet the Lord – not at the sanctuaries, but face-to-face in judgment.

4 tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.

5 tn The words “Disaster will be inescapable” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

6 tn Heb “went” (so KJV, NRSV).

7 tn Heb “in a day of light.”

8 tn Heb “the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on.”

9 tn Or “kingdom.”

10 tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).