Amos 2:10

2:10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt;

I led you through the wilderness for forty years

so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.

Amos 5:6

5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!

Otherwise he will break out ¹  like fire against Joseph’s ²  family; ³ 

the fire ⁴  will consume

and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁵ 

Amos 9:4

9:4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ⁶ 

from there ⁷  I will command the sword to kill them.

I will not let them out of my sight;

they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ⁸ 

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. ⁹ 

[5:6]  ¹ tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.

[5:6]  ² sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “house.”

[5:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”

[9:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Even if they go into captivity before their enemies.”

[9:4]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will set my eye on them for disaster, not good.”

[9:9]  ⁹ 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).