Amos 1:9
Konteks1:9 This is what the Lord says:
“Because Tyre has committed three crimes 1 –
make that four! 2 – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. 3
They sold 4 a whole community 5 to Edom;
they failed to observe 6 a treaty of brotherhood. 7
Amos 2:6
Konteks2:6 This is what the Lord says:
“Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions 8 –
make that four! 9 – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. 10
They sold the innocent 11 for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals. 12
Amos 5:8
Konteks5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight 13 into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!
Amos 7:17
Konteks7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets 14
and your sons and daughters will die violently. 15
Your land will be given to others 16
and you will die in a foreign 17 land.
Israel will certainly be carried into exile 18 away from its land.’”
[1:9] 1 tn Traditionally, “transgressions” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) or “sins” (NIV). For an explanation of the atrocities outlined in this oracle as treaty violations of God’s mandate to Noah in Gen 9:5-7, see the note on the word “violations” in 1:3.
[1:9] 2 tn Heb “Because of three violations of Tyre, even because of four.”
[1:9] sn On the three…four style that introduces each of the judgment oracles of chaps. 1-2 see the note on the word “four” in 1:3.
[1:9] 3 tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.
[1:9] 5 tn Heb “[group of] exiles.” A similar phrase occurs in v. 6.
[1:9] 6 tn Heb “did not remember.”
[1:9] 7 sn A treaty of brotherhood. In the ancient Near Eastern world familial terms were sometimes used to describe treaty partners. In a treaty between superior and inferior parties, the lord would be called “father” and the subject “son.” The partners in a treaty between equals referred to themselves as “brothers.” For biblical examples, see 1 Kgs 9:13; 20:32-33.
[2:6] 8 tn For this translation see the note at 2:4.
[2:6] 9 tn Heb “Because of three violations of Israel, even because of four.”
[2:6] sn On the three…four style that introduces each of the judgment oracles of chaps. 1-2 see the note on the word “four” in 1:3. Only in this last oracle against Israel does one find the list of four specific violations expected based on the use of a similar formula elsewhere in wisdom literature (see Prov 30:18-19, 29-31). This adaptation of the normal pattern indicates the
[2:6] 10 tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.
[2:6] 11 tn Or “honest” (CEV, NLT). The Hebrew word sometimes has a moral-ethical connotation, “righteous, godly,” but the parallelism (note “poor”) suggests a socio-economic or legal sense here. The practice of selling debtors as slaves is in view (Exod 21:2-11; Lev 25:35-55; Deut 15:12-18) See the note at Exod 21:8 and G. C. Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup). Probably the only “crime” the victim had committed was being unable to pay back a loan or an exorbitant interest rate on a loan. Some have suggested that this verse refers to bribery in legal proceedings: The innocent are “sold” in the sense that those in power pay off the elders or judges for favorable decisions (5:12; cf. Exod 23:6-7).
[2:6] 12 tn Perhaps the expression “for a pair of sandals” indicates a relatively small price or debt. Some suggest that the sandals may have been an outward token of a more substantial purchase price. Others relate the sandals to a ritual attached to the transfer of property, signifying here that the poor would be losing their inherited family lands because of debt (Ruth 4:7; cf. Deut 25:8-10). Still others emend the Hebrew form slightly to נֶעְלָם (ne’lam, “hidden thing”; from the root עָלַם, ’alam, “to hide”) and understand this as referring to a bribe.
[5:8] 13 tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”
[7:17] 14 tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”
[7:17] 15 tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”
[7:17] 16 tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”
[7:17] 17 tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).
