Amos 3:1

Every Effect has its Cause

3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ²  from the land of Egypt:

Amos 3:9

Samaria Will Fall

3:9 Make this announcement in ³  the fortresses of Ashdod

and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.

Say this:

“Gather on the hills around Samaria! ⁴ 

Observe the many acts of violence ⁵  taking place within the city, ⁶ 

the oppressive deeds ⁷  occurring in it.” ⁸ 

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ⁹  will have only a hundred left;

the town ¹⁰  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ¹¹  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ¹² 

Amos 5:18

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe ¹³  to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

Amos 6:1

The Party is over for the Rich

6:1 Woe ¹⁴  to those who live in ease in Zion, ¹⁵ 

to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

They think of themselves as ¹⁶  the elite class of the best nation.

The family ¹⁷  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ¹⁸ 

Amos 8:3

8:3 The women singing in the temple ¹⁹  will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ²⁰  Be quiet!”

Amos 8:8

8:8 Because of this the earth ²¹  will quake, ²² 

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth ²³  will rise like the River Nile, ²⁴ 

it will surge upward ²⁵  and then grow calm, ²⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ²⁷ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Or “about.”

[3:1]  ² tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the Lord apparently refers to himself in the third person in the preceding sentence. This first person form, however, serves to connect this message to the earlier indictment (2:10) and anticipates the words of the following verse.

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “on” or “over” (also later in this verse).

[3:9]  ⁴ sn Samaria might refer here both to the region and to the capital city (later known as Sebaste). On the other hand, there actually are hills that surround the mound upon which the city was built. The implication is that the nations can come and sit and see from those hills the sin of the capital city and its judgment.

[3:9]  map For location of the city see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[3:9]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew noun carries the nuance of “panic” or “confusion.” Here it refers metonymically to the violent deeds that terrorize the oppressed.

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “in her midst” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “among her people.”

[3:9]  ⁷ tn The translation assumes the form is an abstract plural (see Job 35:9; Eccl 4:1). Another option is to understand the form as a substantival passive participle and translate, “the oppressed” (so KJV).

[3:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “within her.”

[5:3]  ⁹ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹² 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).

[5:18]  ¹³ tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.

[6:1]  ¹⁴ tn On the Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy; “ah, woe”) as a term of mourning, see the notes in 5:16, 18.

[6:1]  ¹⁵ sn Zion is a reference to Jerusalem.

[6:1]  ¹⁶ tn The words “They think of themselves as” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the term נְקֻבֵי (nÿquvey; “distinguished ones, elite”) is in apposition to the substantival participles in the first line.

[6:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[6:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “comes to them.”

[8:3]  ¹⁹ tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).

[8:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”

[8:8]  ²¹ tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).

[8:8]  ²² tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[8:8]  ²³ tn Heb “all of it.”

[8:8]  ²⁴ tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.

[8:8]  sn The movement of the quaking earth is here compared to the annual flooding and receding of the River Nile.

[8:8]  ²⁵ tn Or “churn.”

[8:8]  ²⁶ tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere.

[8:8]  ²⁷ tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity.