6:14 “Look! I am about to bring 1 a nation against you, family 2 of Israel.”
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking.
“They will oppress 3 you all the way from Lebo-Hamath 4 to the Stream of the Arabah.” 5
7:10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel 6 sent this message 7 to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very heart of the kingdom of Israel! 8 The land cannot endure all his prophecies. 9
8:8 Because of this the earth 10 will quake, 11
and all who live in it will mourn.
The whole earth 12 will rise like the River Nile, 13
it will surge upward 14 and then grow calm, 15 like the Nile in Egypt. 16
9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. 17
He touches the earth and it dissolves; 18
all who live on it mourn.
The whole earth 19 rises like the River Nile, 20
and then grows calm 21 like the Nile in Egypt. 22
9:9 “For look, I am giving a command
and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.
It will resemble a sieve being shaken,
when not even a pebble falls to the ground. 23
1 tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”
2 tn Heb “house.”
3 sn Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” (לָחַץ, lakhats) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 (עָשַׁק, ’ashaq).
4 tn Or “from the entrance to Hamath.” The Hebrew term לְבוֹא (lÿvo’) can either be translated or considered a part of the place name.
5 sn Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25. Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.
6 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
7 tn The direct object of the verb translated “sent” is elided in the Hebrew text. The words “this message” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
8 tn Heb “in the middle of the house of Israel.”
9 tn Heb “words.”
10 tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).
11 tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the
12 tn Heb “all of it.”
13 tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.
sn The movement of the quaking earth is here compared to the annual flooding and receding of the River Nile.
14 tn Or “churn.”
15 tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.
16 tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.
17 tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
18 tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.
19 tn Heb “all of it.”
20 tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Or “sinks back down.”
22 sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.
23 tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).