Amos 2:2

2:2 So I will set Moab on fire, ¹ 

and it will consume Kerioth’s ²  fortresses.

Moab will perish ³  in the heat of battle ⁴ 

amid war cries and the blaring ⁵  of the ram’s horn. ⁶ 

Amos 7:4

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁷  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁸  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

[2:2]  ¹ sn The destruction of Moab by fire is an example of a judgment in kind – as the Moabites committed the crime of “burning,” so the Lord will punish them by setting them on fire.

[2:2]  ² sn Kerioth was an important Moabite city. See Jer 48:24, 41.

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “die” (KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV); NAB “shall meet death.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Or “in the tumult.” This word refers to the harsh confusion of sounds that characterized an ancient battle – a mixture of war cries, shouts, shrieks of pain, clashes of weapons, etc.

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “sound” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁶ sn The ram’s horn (used as a trumpet) was blown to signal the approaching battle.

[7:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁸ 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).