2:11 I made some of your sons prophets
and some of your young men Nazirites. 1
Is this not true, you Israelites?”
The Lord is speaking!
2:14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; 2
strong men will have no strength left; 3
warriors will not be able to save their lives.
3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)
“They store up 4 the spoils of destructive violence 5 in their fortresses.
4:8 People from 6 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 7 water,
but remained thirsty. 8
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
5:2 “The virgin 9 Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.
She is abandoned on her own land
with no one to help her get up.” 10
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.
5:25 You did not bring me 11 sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family 12 of Israel.
6:6 They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, 13
and pour the very best oils on themselves. 14
Yet they are not concerned over 15 the ruin 16 of Joseph.
7:14 Amos replied 17 to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. 18 No, 19 I was a herdsman who also took care of 20 sycamore fig trees. 21
1 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).
2 tn Heb “and a place of refuge will perish from the swift.”
3 tn Heb “the strong will not increase his strength.”
4 tn Heb “those who.”
5 tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.
6 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 tn Heb “to drink.”
8 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
9 tn Or “young lady.” The term “Israel” is an appositional genitive.
10 tn Or “with no one to lift her up.”
11 tn Heb “Did you bring me…?” This rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The point seems to be this: Since sacrifices did not characterize God’s relationship with Israel during the nation’s formative years, the people should not consider them to be so fundamental. The
sn Like Jer 7:22-23, this passage seems to contradict the Pentateuchal accounts that indicate Israel did offer sacrifices during the wilderness period. It is likely that both Amos and Jeremiah overstate the case to emphasize the relative insignificance of sacrifices in comparison to weightier matters of the covenant. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 428.
12 tn Heb “house.”
13 sn Perhaps some religious rite is in view, or the size of the bowls is emphasized (i.e., bowls as large as sacrificial bowls).
14 tn Heb “with the best of oils they anoint [themselves].”
15 tn Or “not sickened by.”
16 sn The ruin of Joseph may refer to the societal disintegration in Israel, or to the effects of the impending judgment.
17 tn Heb “replied and said.” The phrase “and said” is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been included in the translation.
18 tn Heb “I was not a prophet nor was I the son of a prophet.” The phrase “son of a prophet” refers to one who was trained in a prophetic guild. Since there is no equative verb present in the Hebrew text, another option is to translate with the present tense, “I am not a prophet by profession.” In this case Amos, though now carrying out a prophetic ministry (v. 15), denies any official or professional prophetic status. Modern English versions are divided about whether to understand the past (JB, NIV, NKJV) or present tense (NASB, NEB, NRSV, NJPS) here.
19 tn Heb “for.”
20 tn Heb “gashed”; or “pierced.”
sn For a discussion of the agricultural background, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 128-29.
21 sn It is possible that herdsmen agreed to care for sycamore fig trees in exchange for grazing rights. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 116-17. Since these trees do not grow around Tekoa but rather in the lowlands, another option is that Amos owned other property outside his hometown. In this case, this verse demonstrates his relative wealth and is his response to Amaziah; he did not depend on prophecy as a profession (v. 13).