Amos 1:8

1:8 I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³ 

the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴ 

I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶ 

the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷ 

The sovereign Lord has spoken!

Amos 3:7

3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:11

3:11 Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. ⁸ 

He will take away your power; ⁹ 

your fortresses will be looted.”

Amos 4:2

4:2 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ¹⁰ 

“Certainly the time is approaching ¹¹ 

when you will be carried away ¹²  in baskets, ¹³ 

every last one of you ¹⁴  in fishermen’s pots. ¹⁵ 

Amos 4:5

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ¹⁶ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ¹⁷ 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ¹⁸  will have only a hundred left;

the town ¹⁹  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ²⁰  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ²¹ 

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ²² 

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ²³  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ²⁴  the city of Samaria ²⁵  and everything in it.”

Amos 7:1-2

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ²⁶  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ²⁷  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ²⁸ ) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ²⁹ 

How can Jacob survive? ³⁰ 

He is too weak!” ³¹ 

Amos 8:3

8:3 The women singing in the temple ³²  will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ³³  Be quiet!”

Amos 8:9

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. ³⁴ 

Amos 9:5

9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. ³⁵ 

He touches the earth and it dissolves; ³⁶ 

all who live on it mourn.

The whole earth ³⁷  rises like the River Nile, ³⁸ 

and then grows calm ³⁹  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁴⁰ 

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:8]  ² tn Heb “the one who sits.” Some translations take this expression as a collective singular referring to the inhabitants rather than the ruler (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[1:8]  ³ sn Ashdod was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashkelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath).

[1:8]  ⁴ sn Ashkelon was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath).

[1:8]  ⁵ sn Ekron was one of the five major Philistine cities (along with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Gath).

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will turn my hand against Ekron.” For other uses of the idiom, “turn the hand against,” see Ps 81:14; Isa 1:25; Jer 6:9; Zech 13:7.

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the remnant of the Philistines will perish.” The translation above assumes that reference is made to other Philistines beside those living in the cities mentioned. Another option is to translate, “Every last Philistine will die.”

[3:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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.

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “swears by his holiness.”

[4:2]  sn The message that follows is an unconditional oath, the fulfillment of which is just as certain as the Lord’s own holy character.

[4:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Look, certainly days are coming upon you”; NRSV “the time is surely coming upon you.”

[4:2]  ¹² tn Heb “one will carry you away”; NASB “they will take you away.”

[4:2]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word translated “baskets” is uncertain. The translation follows the suggestion of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (130-32): “shields” (cf. NEB); “ropes”; “thorns,” which leads to the most favored interpretation, “hooks” (cf. NASB “meat hooks”; NIV, NRSV “hooks”); “baskets,” and (derived from “baskets”) “boats.” Against the latter, it is unlikely that Amos envisioned a deportation by boat for the inhabitants of Samaria! See also the note on the expression “fishermen’s pots” later in this verse.

[4:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “your children”; KJV “your posterity.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression translated “in fishermen’s pots” is uncertain. The translation follows that of S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 128), who discusses the various options (132-33): “thorns,” understood by most modern interpreters to mean (by extension) “fishhooks” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV); “boats,” but as mentioned in the previous note on the word “baskets,” a deportation of the Samaritans by boat is geographically unlikely; and “pots,” referring to a container used for packing fish (cf. NEB “fish-baskets”). Paul (p. 134) argues that the imagery comes from the ancient fishing industry. When hauled away into exile, the women of Samaria will be like fish packed and transported to market.

[4:2]  sn The imagery of catching fish in connection with the captivity of Israel is also found in Jer 16:16 and Hab 1:14.

[4:5]  ¹⁶ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[5:3]  ¹⁸ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “The one.” The word “town” has been used in the translation in keeping with the relative sizes of the armed contingents sent out by each. It is also possible that this line is speaking of the same city of the previous line. In other words, the contingent sent by that one city would have suffered a ninety-nine percent casualty loss.

[5:3]  ²⁰ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the nation (NEB, NJB, NASB, NKJV). Others suggest that this phrase completes the introductory formula (“The sovereign Lord says this…”; see v. 4a; NJPS). Another option is that the preposition has a vocative force, “O house of Israel” (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 476). Some simply delete the phrase as dittography from the following line (NIV).

[6:8]  ²² tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ²³ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ²⁴ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ²⁵ 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.

[7:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ²⁷ sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:1]  sn This royal harvest may refer to an initial mowing of crops collected as taxes by the royal authorities.

[7:2]  ²⁹ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “small.”

[8:3]  ³² tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).

[8:3]  ³³ tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”

[8:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[9:5]  ³⁵ tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ³⁶ tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.

[9:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “all of it.”

[9:5]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ³⁹ tn Or “sinks back down.”

[9:5]  ⁴⁰ sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.