Amos 3:4

3:4 Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? ¹ 

Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ²  in a city, do people not fear? ³ 

If disaster overtakes a ⁴  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁵ 

Amos 3:11

3:11 Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. ⁶ 

He will take away your power; ⁷ 

your fortresses will be looted.”

Amos 4:3

4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; ⁸ 

you will be thrown out ⁹  toward Harmon.” ¹⁰ 

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 7:12

7:12 Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! ¹¹  Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living ¹²  and prophesy there!

[3:4]  ¹ tn Heb “without having prey [or “food”].”

[3:6]  ² tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ³ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[3:11]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[4:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and [through the] breaches you will go out, each straight ahead.”

[4:3]  ⁹ tn The Hiphil verb form has no object. It may be intransitive (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 425), though many emend it to a Hophal.

[4:3]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of this word is unclear. Many understand it as a place name, though such a location is not known. Some (e.g., H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia[, 204) emend to “Hermon” or to similarly written words, such as “the dung heap” (NEB, NJPS), “the garbage dump” (NCV), or “the fortress” (cf. NLT “your fortresses”).

[7:12]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally, “seer.” The word is a synonym for “prophet,” though it may carry a derogatory tone on the lips of Amaziah.

[7:12]  ¹² tn Heb “Eat bread there.”