Discovery BoxAmos 4:8 
Context4:8 People from 1 two or three cities staggered into one city to get 2 water,
but remained thirsty. 3
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 5:22
Context5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, 4 I will not be satisfied;
I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. 5
Amos 5:25
Context5:25 You did not bring me 6 sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family 7 of Israel.
Amos 7:4
Context7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw 8 the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. 9 It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.
1 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 tn Heb “to drink.”
3 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
4 tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”
5 tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”
6 tn Heb “Did you bring me…?” This rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The point seems to be this: Since sacrifices did not characterize God’s relationship with Israel during the nation’s formative years, the people should not consider them to be so fundamental. The
sn Like Jer 7:22-23, this passage seems to contradict the Pentateuchal accounts that indicate Israel did offer sacrifices during the wilderness period. It is likely that both Amos and Jeremiah overstate the case to emphasize the relative insignificance of sacrifices in comparison to weightier matters of the covenant. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 428.
7 tn Heb “house.”
8 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
9 tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).
