Amos 4:8-9

4:8 People from ¹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ²  water,

but remained thirsty. ³ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ⁴  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ⁵  devouring your orchards, ⁶  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

[4:8]  ¹ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ² tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ³ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ⁵ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ⁶ tn Or “gardens.”