Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ¹  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ² 

Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ³ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ⁴ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ⁵ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁶ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁷ 

[8:2]  ¹ 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.

[8:2]  ² tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:10]  ³ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.

[8:10]  ⁵ 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).

[8:10]  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.

[8:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ⁷ 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.