Amos 5:15

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote ¹  justice at the city gate! ² 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on ³  those who are left from ⁴  Joseph. ⁵ 

Amos 7:2

7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ⁶ 

How can Jacob survive? ⁷ 

He is too weak!” ⁸ 

Amos 9:15

9:15 I will plant them on their land

and they will never again be uprooted from the ⁹  land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.

[5:15]  ¹ tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

[5:15]  ² sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

[5:15]  ³ tn Or “will show favor to.”

[5:15]  ⁴ tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

[5:15]  ⁵ sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[7:2]  ⁶ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

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

[7:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “small.”

[9:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.