Amos 3:9-15
Konteks3:9 Make this announcement in 1 the fortresses of Ashdod
and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.
Say this:
“Gather on the hills around Samaria! 2
Observe the many acts of violence 3 taking place within the city, 4
the oppressive deeds 5 occurring in it.” 6
3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)
“They store up 7 the spoils of destructive violence 8 in their fortresses.
3:11 Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. 9
He will take away your power; 10
your fortresses will be looted.”
3:12 This is what the Lord says:
“Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion’s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged. 11
They will be left with just a corner of a bed, 12
and a part 13 of a couch.”
3:13 Listen and warn 14 the family 15 of Jacob! 16
The sovereign Lord, the God who commands armies, 17 is speaking!
3:14 “Certainly when 18 I punish Israel for their 19 covenant transgressions, 20
I will destroy 21 Bethel’s 22 altars.
The horns 23 of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. 24
The houses filled with ivory 25 will be ruined,
the great 26 houses will be swept away.” 27
The Lord is speaking!
Amos 6:8-14
Konteks6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. 28
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:
“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;
I hate their 29 fortresses.
I will hand over to their enemies 30 the city of Samaria 31 and everything in it.”
6:9 If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. 6:10 When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, 32 pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!” 33
6:11 Indeed, look! The Lord is giving the command. 34
He will smash the large house to bits,
and the small house into little pieces.
6:12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?
Can one plow the sea with oxen? 35
Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,
and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. 36
6:13 You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar. 37
You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim 38 by our own power?”
6:14 “Look! I am about to bring 39 a nation against you, family 40 of Israel.”
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking.
“They will oppress 41 you all the way from Lebo-Hamath 42 to the Stream of the Arabah.” 43
Amos 7:8
Konteks7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,
“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.
I will no longer overlook their sin. 44
Amos 8:2
Konteks8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end 45 has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. 46
[3:9] 1 tn Heb “on” or “over” (also later in this verse).
[3:9] 2 sn Samaria might refer here both to the region and to the capital city (later known as Sebaste). On the other hand, there actually are hills that surround the mound upon which the city was built. The implication is that the nations can come and sit and see from those hills the sin of the capital city and its judgment.
[3:9] map For location of the city see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[3:9] 3 tn The Hebrew noun carries the nuance of “panic” or “confusion.” Here it refers metonymically to the violent deeds that terrorize the oppressed.
[3:9] 4 tn Heb “in her midst” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “among her people.”
[3:9] 5 tn The translation assumes the form is an abstract plural (see Job 35:9; Eccl 4:1). Another option is to understand the form as a substantival passive participle and translate, “the oppressed” (so KJV).
[3:10] 8 tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.
[3:11] 9 tc The MT reads “an enemy and around the land.” It is also possible to take the MT as an exclamation (“an enemy, and all about the land!”; see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 118; NJPS; cf. NLT).Most scholars and versions emend the text to יְסוֹבֵב (yÿsovev, Polel imperfect), “will encircle.”
[3:11] 10 tn Heb “He will bring down your power from you.” Some emend the text to read “Your power will be brought down from you.” The shift, however, from an active to a passive sense also appears at 3:14 (“I will destroy Bethel’s altars. The horns of the altar will be cut off.”) The pronouns (“your…you”) are feminine singular, indicating that the personified city of Samaria is addressed here. Samaria’s “power” here is her defenses and/or wealth.
[3:12] 11 sn The verb translated salvaged, though often used in a positive sense of deliverance from harm, is here employed in a sarcastic manner. A shepherd would attempt to salvage part of an animal to prove that a predator had indeed killed it. In this way he could prove that he had not stolen the missing animal and absolve himself from any responsibility to repay the owner (see Exod 22:12-13).
[3:12] 12 tn Heb “with a corner of a bed.”
[3:12] 13 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word דְּמֶשֶׁק (dÿmesheq), which occurs only here, is uncertain. If not emended, it is usually related to the term ַדּמֶּשֶׂק (dammeseq) and translated as the “Damask linens” of the bed (cf. NASB “the cover”) or as “in Damascus” (so KJV, NJB, NIV). The differences in spelling (Damascus is spelled correctly in 5:27), historical considerations, and the word order make both of these derivations unlikely. Many emendations have been proposed (e.g., “a part from the foot [of a bed],” based on a different division of the Hebrew letters (cf. NEB, NRSV); “on the edge,” based on a Hebrew term not attested in the Bible (NKJV). Some suggest a resemblance to an Akkadian term which means “sideboard [of a bed],” which is sometimes incorrectly rendered “headboard” (NJPS; see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 121-22). Most likely another part of a bed or couch is in view, but it is difficult to be more specific.
[3:13] 14 tn Or “testify against.”
[3:13] 16 tn These words are spoken to either the unidentified heralds addressed at the beginning of v. 9, or to the Egyptians and Philistines (see v. 9b). Another possibility is that one is not to look for a specific addressee but rather appreciate the command simply as a rhetorical device to grab the attention of the listeners and readers of the prophetic message.
[3:13] 17 tn Traditionally, “the God of hosts.”
[3:14] 18 tn Heb “in the day.”
[3:14] 19 tn Heb “his.” With the referent “Israel” here, this amounts to a collective singular.
[3:14] 20 tn Traditionally, “transgressions, sins,” but see the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3.
[3:14] 21 tn Heb “punish” (so NASB, NRSV).
[3:14] 22 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[3:14] 23 sn The horns of an ancient altar projected upwards from the four corners and resembled an animal’s horns in appearance. Fugitives could seek asylum by grabbing hold of these corners (see Exod 21:14; 1 Kgs 1:50; 2:28). When the altar’s horns were cut off, there would be no place of asylum left for the
[3:15] 24 tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”
[3:15] sn Like kings, many in Israel’s wealthy class owned both winter and summer houses (cf. 1 Kgs 21:1,18; Jer 36:22). For a discussion of archaeological evidence relating to these structures, see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 64-65.
[3:15] 25 tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.
[3:15] 26 tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”
[3:15] 27 tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.
[6:8] 28 tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”
[6:8] 29 tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.
[6:8] 30 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[6:8] 31 tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.
[6:10] 32 tn The translation assumes that “their relatives” and “the ones who will burn the corpses” are in apposition. Another option is to take them as distinct individuals, in which case one could translate, “When their close relatives and the ones who will burn the corpses pick up…” The meaning of the form translated “the ones who burn the corpses” is uncertain. Another option is to translate, “the ones who prepare the corpses for burial” (NASB “undertaker”; cf. also CEV). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 215-16.
[6:10] 33 tn This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret. The Hebrew text literally reads, “And he will lift him up, his uncle, and the one burning him, to bring out bones from the house. And he will say to the one who is in the inner parts of the house, ‘Is there [anyone] still with you?’ And he will say, ‘Be quiet for not to invoke the name of the
[6:11] 34 tn Or “is issuing the decree.”
[6:12] 35 tc Heb “Does one plow with oxen?” This obviously does not fit the parallelism, for the preceding rhetorical question requires the answer, “Of course not!” An error of fusion has occurred in the Hebrew, with the word יָם (yam, “sea”) being accidentally added as a plural ending to the collective noun בָּקָר (baqar, “oxen”). A proper division of the consonants produces the above translation, which fits the parallelism and also anticipates the answer, “Of course not!”
[6:12] 36 sn The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.
[6:13] 37 tn Heb “those who rejoice over Lo-Debar.”
[6:13] sn Lo-Debar was located across the Jordan River in Gilead, which the Israelite army had conquered. However, there is stinging irony here, for in Hebrew the name Lo-Debar means “nothing.” In reality Israel was happy over nothing of lasting consequence.
[6:13] 38 sn Karnaim was also located across the Jordan River. The name in Hebrew means “double horned.” Since an animal’s horn was a symbol of strength (see Deut 33:17), the Israelites boasted in this victory over a town whose very name symbolized military power.
[6:14] 39 tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”
[6:14] 41 sn Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” (לָחַץ, lakhats) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 (עָשַׁק, ’ashaq).
[6:14] 42 tn Or “from the entrance to Hamath.” The Hebrew term לְבוֹא (lÿvo’) can either be translated or considered a part of the place name.
[6:14] 43 sn Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25. Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.
[7:8] 44 tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”
[8:2] 45 tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.
