Amos 1:14

1:14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s ¹  city wall; ² 

fire ³  will consume her fortresses.

War cries will be heard on the day of battle; ⁴ 

a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. ⁵ 

Amos 2:2

2:2 So I will set Moab on fire, ⁶ 

and it will consume Kerioth’s ⁷  fortresses.

Moab will perish ⁸  in the heat of battle ⁹ 

amid war cries and the blaring ¹⁰  of the ram’s horn. ¹¹ 

Amos 4:12

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel! ¹² 

Amos 7:9

7:9 Isaac’s centers of worship ¹³  will become desolate;

Israel’s holy places will be in ruins.

I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.” ¹⁴ 

Amos 9:2

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ¹⁵ 

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

Amos 9:5

9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. ¹⁶ 

He touches the earth and it dissolves; ¹⁷ 

all who live on it mourn.

The whole earth ¹⁸  rises like the River Nile, ¹⁹ 

and then grows calm ²⁰  like the Nile in Egypt. ²¹ 

Amos 9:9

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ²² 

[1:14]  ¹ sn Rabbah was the Ammonite capital.

[1:14]  ² sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

[1:14]  ³ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “with a war cry in the day of battle.”

[1:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “with wind in the day of the windstorm.”

[1:14]  sn A windstorm is a metaphor for judgment and destruction in the OT (see Isa 29:6; Jer 23:19) and ancient Near Eastern literature.

[2:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn Kerioth was an important Moabite city. See Jer 48:24, 41.

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Or “die” (KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV); NAB “shall meet death.”

[2:2]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sound” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[2:2]  ¹¹ sn The ram’s horn (used as a trumpet) was blown to signal the approaching battle.

[4:12]  ¹² tn The Lord appears to announce a culminating judgment resulting from Israel’s obstinate refusal to repent. The following verse describes the Lord in his role as sovereign judge, but it does not outline the judgment per se. For this reason F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 450) take the prefixed verbal forms as preterites referring to the series of judgments detailed in vv. 6-11. It is more likely that a coming judgment is in view, but that its details are omitted for rhetorical effect, creating a degree of suspense (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 149-50) that will find its solution in chapter 5. This line is an ironic conclusion to the section begun at 4:4. Israel thought they were meeting the Lord at the sanctuaries, yet they actually had misunderstood how he had been trying to bring them back to himself. Now Israel would truly meet the Lord – not at the sanctuaries, but face-to-face in judgment.

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “the high places” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “pagan shrines.”

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.”

[9:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “into Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), that is, the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. Cf. KJV “hell”; NCV, NLT “the place of the dead”; NIV “the depths of the grave.”

[9:5]  ¹⁶ tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.

[9:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all of it.”

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ²⁰ tn Or “sinks back down.”

[9:5]  ²¹ sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.

[9:9]  ²² tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).