9:1 I saw the sovereign One 1 standing by the altar 2 and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, 3 so the thresholds shake!
Knock them down on the heads of all the people, 4
and I will kill the survivors 5 with the sword.
No one will be able to run away; 6
no one will be able to escape. 7
9:13 “Be sure of this, 8 the time is 9 coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper 10
and the one who stomps the grapes 11 will overtake 12 the planter. 13
Juice will run down the slopes, 14
it will flow down all the hillsides. 15
1 tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
2 sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.
3 tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.
4 tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”
5 tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.
6 tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”
7 tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”
8 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
9 tn Heb “the days are.”
10 sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.
11 sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.
12 tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
13 sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.
14 tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.
15 tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”