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 8:14
Context8:14 These are the ones who now take oaths 3 in the name of the sinful idol goddess 4 of Samaria.
They vow, 5 ‘As surely as your god 6 lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one 7 lives, O Beer Sheba!’
But they will fall down and not get up again.”
1 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
2 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
3 tn Heb “those who swear.”
4 tn Heb “the sin [or “guilt”] of Samaria.” This could be a derogatory reference to an idol-goddess popular in the northern kingdom, perhaps Asherah (cf. 2 Chr 24:18, where this worship is labeled “their guilt”), or to the golden calf at the national sanctuary in Bethel (Hos 8:6, 10:8). Some English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, CEV) repoint the word and read “Ashimah,” the name of a goddess worshiped in Hamath in Syria (see 2 Kgs 17:30).
5 tn Heb “say.”
6 sn Your god is not identified. It may refer to another patron deity who was not the God of Israel, a local manifestation of the Lord that was worshiped by the people there, or, more specifically, the golden calf image erected in Dan by Jeroboam I (see 1 Kgs 12:28-30).
7 tc The MT reads, “As surely as the way [to] Beer Sheba lives,” or “As surely as the way lives, O Beer Sheba.” Perhaps the term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “the way”) refers to the pilgrimage route to Beersheba (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 272) or it may be a title for a god. The notion of pilgrimage appears elsewhere in the book (cf. 4:4-5; 5:4-5; 8:12). The translation above assumes an emendation to דֹּדְךְ (dodÿkh, “your beloved” or “relative”; the term also is used in 6:10) and understands this as referring either to the Lord (since other kinship terms are used of him, such as “Father”) or to another deity that was particularly popular in Beer Sheba. Besides the commentaries, see S. M. Olyan, “The Oaths of Amos 8:14” Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel, 121-49.
