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!
3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)
“They store up 2 the spoils of destructive violence 3 in their fortresses.
3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. 4
The houses filled with ivory 5 will be ruined,
the great 6 houses will be swept away.” 7
The Lord is speaking!
4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; 8
you will be thrown out 9 toward Harmon.” 10
The Lord is speaking!
4:8 People from 11 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 12 water,
but remained thirsty. 13
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
8:3 The women singing in the temple 14 will wail in that day.”
The sovereign Lord is speaking.
“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! 15 Be quiet!”
9:12 As a result they 16 will conquer those left in Edom 17
and all the nations subject to my rule.” 18
The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!
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 “those who.”
3 tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.
4 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.
5 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.
6 tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”
7 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.
8 tn Heb “and [through the] breaches you will go out, each straight ahead.”
9 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.
10 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”).
11 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
12 tn Heb “to drink.”
13 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
14 tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).
15 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.”
16 sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.
17 tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”
18 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.