Amos 4:10

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ²  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 8:11

8:11 Be certain of this, ³  the time is ⁴  coming,” says the sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land –

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation! ⁵ 

Amos 9:7-8

9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” ⁶  says the Lord.

“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor ⁷  and the Arameans from Kir. ⁸ 

9:8 Look, the sovereign Lord is watching ⁹  the sinful nation, ¹⁰ 

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

But I will not completely destroy the family ¹¹  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ² tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[8:11]  ³ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “the days are.”

[8:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “not a hunger for food or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.”

[9:7]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.

[9:7]  sn Though Israel was God’s special covenant people (see 3:2a), the Lord emphasizes they are not inherently superior to the other nations subject to his sovereign rule.

[9:7]  ⁷ sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.

[9:7]  ⁸ tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.

[9:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on.”

[9:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “kingdom.”

[9:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).