Discovery BoxAmos 4:11 
Context4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God 1 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 2
You were like a burning stick 3 snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 5:3
Context5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:
“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers 4 will have only a hundred left;
the town 5 that marches out with a hundred soldiers 6 will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” 7
Amos 9:7
Context9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” 8 says the Lord.
“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor 9 and the Arameans from Kir. 10
Amos 9:13
Context9:13 “Be sure of this, 11 the time is 12 coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper 13
and the one who stomps the grapes 14 will overtake 15 the planter. 16
Juice will run down the slopes, 17
it will flow down all the hillsides. 18
1 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
2 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.
3 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”
4 tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn Heb “The one.” The word “town” has been used in the translation in keeping with the relative sizes of the armed contingents sent out by each. It is also possible that this line is speaking of the same city of the previous line. In other words, the contingent sent by that one city would have suffered a ninety-nine percent casualty loss.
6 tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 tn Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the nation (NEB, NJB, NASB, NKJV). Others suggest that this phrase completes the introductory formula (“The sovereign
8 tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.
sn Though Israel was God’s special covenant people (see 3:2a), the Lord emphasizes they are not inherently superior to the other nations subject to his sovereign rule.
9 sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.
10 tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
12 tn Heb “the days are.”
13 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.
14 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.
15 tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
16 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.
17 tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.
18 tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”
