Amos 8:10

I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹  and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ²  and cause every head to be shaved bald. ³  I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁴  when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁵ 

De 16:14; 1Sa 25:36-38; 2Sa 13:28-31; Job 3:5; Job 20:23; Isa 15:2,3; Isa 21:3,4; Isa 22:12-14; Jer 6:26; Jer 48:37; Eze 7:18; Eze 27:30,31; Da 5:4-6; Ho 2:11; Am 5:23; Am 6:4-7; Am 8:3; Na 1:10; Zec 12:10; Lu 7:12,13

¹ tn Heb “mourning.”

² tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

⁵ 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.