Discovery BoxAmos 4:6 
Context4:6 “But surely I gave 1 you no food to eat in any of your cities;
you lacked food everywhere you live. 2
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 4:8-10
Context4:8 People from 3 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 4 water,
but remained thirsty. 5
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:9 “I destroyed your crops 6 with blight and disease.
Locusts kept 7 devouring your orchards, 8 vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. 9
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses 10 rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
1 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).
2 tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.
3 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 tn Heb “to drink.”
5 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
6 tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.
7 tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).
8 tn Or “gardens.”
9 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
10 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
