3:5 Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait?
Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something?
4:6 “But surely I gave 1 you no food to eat in any of your cities;
you lacked food everywhere you live. 2
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!
Otherwise he will break out 3 like fire against Joseph’s 4 family; 5
the fire 6 will consume
and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 7
“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.
I will no longer overlook their sin. 8
8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end 9 has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. 10
1 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).
2 tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.
3 tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.
4 sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.
5 tn Heb “house.”
6 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”
8 tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”
9 tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.
10 tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”