Discovery BoxAmos 2:9 
Context2:9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. 1
They were as tall as cedars 2
and as strong as oaks,
but I destroyed the fruit on their branches 3
and their roots in the ground. 4
Amos 4:11
Context4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God 5 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 6
You were like a burning stick 7 snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 7:1
Context7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw 8 him making locusts just as the crops planted late 9 were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. 10 )
1 tn Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mippÿney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”
3 tn Heb “his fruit from above.”
4 tn Heb “and his roots from below.”
5 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
6 tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
sn The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is described in Gen 19:1-29.
7 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”
8 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
9 sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.
10 tn Or “the mowings of the king.”
sn This royal harvest may refer to an initial mowing of crops collected as taxes by the royal authorities.
