Discovery BoxAmos 4:10 
Context4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. 1
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses 2 rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 4:13
Context4:13 For here he is!
He 3 formed the mountains and created the wind.
He reveals 4 his plans 5 to men.
He turns the dawn into darkness 6
and marches on the heights of the earth.
The Lord, the God who commands armies, 7 is his name!”
Amos 7:17
Context7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets 8
and your sons and daughters will die violently. 9
Your land will be given to others 10
and you will die in a foreign 11 land.
Israel will certainly be carried into exile 12 away from its land.’”
1 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
2 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
3 tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.
4 tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).
5 tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (’adam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.
6 tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Other options include: (1) “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew
7 tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”
8 tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”
9 tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”
10 tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”
11 tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).
