Amos 4:5

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ¹ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ² 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Amos 5:6

5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!

Otherwise he will break out ³  like fire against Joseph’s ⁴  family; ⁵ 

the fire ⁶  will consume

and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁷ 

Amos 6:1

The Party is over for the Rich

6:1 Woe ⁸  to those who live in ease in Zion, ⁹ 

to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

They think of themselves as ¹⁰  the elite class of the best nation.

The family ¹¹  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ¹² 

Amos 8:12

8:12 People ¹³  will stagger from sea to sea, ¹⁴ 

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a revelation from ¹⁵  the Lord,

but they will not find any. ¹⁶ 

[4:5]  ¹ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ² tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.

[5:6]  ⁴ sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[5:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[5:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”

[6:1]  ⁸ tn On the Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy; “ah, woe”) as a term of mourning, see the notes in 5:16, 18.

[6:1]  ⁹ sn Zion is a reference to Jerusalem.

[6:1]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”

[6:1]  ¹² tn Heb “comes to them.”

[8:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:12]  ¹⁴ tn That is, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east – that is, across the whole land.

[8:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “looking for the word of.”

[8:12]  ¹⁶ tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.