Amos 3:5

3:5 Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait?

Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something?

Amos 4:7-8

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ¹ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ²  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ³  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ⁴  water,

but remained thirsty. ⁵ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 5:1

Death is Imminent

5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, ⁶  family ⁷  of Israel:

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ⁸  will have only a hundred left;

the town ⁹  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ¹⁰  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ¹¹ 

Amos 6:9

6:9 If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.

Amos 7:7-8

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ¹²  the sovereign One ¹³  standing by a tin ¹⁴  wall holding tin in his hand. 7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin. ¹⁵ 

Amos 8:1-2

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹⁶  a basket of summer fruit. ¹⁷ 

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ¹⁸  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ¹⁹ 

[4:7]  ¹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ² tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ³ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ⁵ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[5:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “Listen to this word which I am about to take up against you, a funeral song.”

[5:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[5:3]  ⁸ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “The one.” The word “town” has been used in the translation in keeping with the relative sizes of the armed contingents sent out by each. It is also possible that this line is speaking of the same city of the previous line. In other words, the contingent sent by that one city would have suffered a ninety-nine percent casualty loss.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the nation (NEB, NJB, NASB, NKJV). Others suggest that this phrase completes the introductory formula (“The sovereign Lord says this…”; see v. 4a; NJPS). Another option is that the preposition has a vocative force, “O house of Israel” (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 476). Some simply delete the phrase as dittography from the following line (NIV).

[7:7]  ¹² tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ¹³ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:1]  ¹⁷ sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.

[8:2]  ¹⁸ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

[8:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”