Discovery BoxAmos 8:3 
Context8:3 The women singing in the temple 1 will wail in that day.”
The sovereign Lord is speaking.
“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! 2 Be quiet!”
Amos 8:5
Context8:5 You say,
“When will the new moon festival 3 be over, 4 so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end, 5 so we can open up the grain bins? 6
We’re eager 7 to sell less for a higher price, 8
and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! 9
Amos 8:9-10
Context8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,
and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. 10
8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, 11
and all your songs into funeral dirges.
I will make everyone wear funeral clothes 12
and cause every head to be shaved bald. 13
I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; 14
when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. 15
1 tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).
2 tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”
3 sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.
4 tn Heb “pass by.”
5 tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
6 tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.
7 tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer.
9 tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”
sn Rigged scales may refer to bending the crossbar or shifting the center point of the scales to make the amount weighed appear heavier than it actually was, thus cheating the buyer.
10 tn Heb “in a day of light.”
11 tn Heb “mourning.”
12 tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”
sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.
13 tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).
sn Shaving the head or tearing out one’s hair was a ritual act of mourning. See Lev 21:5; Deut 14:1; Isa 3:24; 15:2; Jer 47:5; 48:37; Ezek 7:18; 27:31; Mic 1:16.
14 tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”
15 tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.
