Amos 8:9-10

8:9 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. ¹ 

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ² 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ³ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ⁴ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁵ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁶ 

[8:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[8:10]  ² tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ⁶ 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.