2:16 Bravehearted 1 warriors will run away naked in that day.”
The Lord is speaking!
3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
3:13 Listen and warn 2 the family 3 of Jacob! 4
The sovereign Lord, the God who commands armies, 5 is speaking!
5:9 He flashes 6 destruction down upon the strong
so that destruction overwhelms 7 the fortified places.)
5:21 “I absolutely despise 8 your festivals!
I get no pleasure 9 from your religious assemblies!
5:23 Take away from me your 10 noisy songs;
I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. 11
6:7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, 12
and the religious banquets 13 where they sprawl on couches 14 will end.
7:6 The Lord decided not to do this. 15 The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”
8:4 Listen to this, you who trample 16 the needy,
and do away with 17 the destitute in the land.
1 tn Or “the most stouthearted” (NAB); NRSV “those who are stout of heart.”
2 tn Or “testify against.”
3 tn Heb “house.”
4 tn These words are spoken to either the unidentified heralds addressed at the beginning of v. 9, or to the Egyptians and Philistines (see v. 9b). Another possibility is that one is not to look for a specific addressee but rather appreciate the command simply as a rhetorical device to grab the attention of the listeners and readers of the prophetic message.
5 tn Traditionally, “the God of hosts.”
6 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb בָּלַג (balag, translated here “flashes”) is uncertain.
7 tn Heb “comes upon.” Many prefer to repoint the verb as Hiphil and translate, “he brings destruction upon the fortified places.”
8 tn Heb “I hate”; “I despise.”
9 tn Heb “I will not smell.” These verses are full of vivid descriptions of the Lord’s total rejection of Israelite worship. In the first half of this verse two verbs are used together for emphasis. Here the verb alludes to the sense of smell, a fitting observation since offerings would have been burned on the altar ideally to provide a sweet aroma to God (see, e.g., Lev 1:9, 13, 17; Num 29:36). Other senses that are mentioned include sight and hearing in vv. 22-23.
10 tn In this verse the second person suffixes are singular and not plural like they are in vv. 21-22 and vv. 25-27. Some have suggested that perhaps a specific individual or group within the nation is in view.
11 tn The Hebrew word probably refers to “harps” (NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “lutes” (NEB).
12 tn Heb “they will go into exile at the head of the exiles.”
13 sn Religious banquets. This refers to the מַרְזֵחַ (marzeakh), a type of pagan religious banquet popular among the upper class of Israel at this time and apparently associated with mourning. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 137-61; J. L. McLaughlin, The “Marzeah” in the Prophetic Literature (VTSup). Scholars debate whether at this banquet the dead were simply remembered or actually venerated in a formal, cultic sense.
14 tn Heb “of the sprawled out.” See v. 4.
15 tn Or “changed his mind about this.”
16 tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7.
17 tn Or “put an end to”; or “exterminate.”