Amos 5:16

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins ¹  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²  says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing,

in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ³ 

They will tell the field workers ⁴  to lament

and the professional mourners ⁵  to wail.

Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ⁶ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ⁷ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ⁸ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁹ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ¹⁰ 

Amos 9:1

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ¹¹  standing by the altar ¹²  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ¹³  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ¹⁴ 

and I will kill the survivors ¹⁵  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ¹⁶ 

no one will be able to escape. ¹⁷ 

[5:16]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore.” This logical connector relates back to the accusation of vv. 10-13, not to the parenthetical call to repentance in vv. 14-15. To indicate this clearly, the phrase “Because of Israel’s sins” is used in the translation.

[5:16]  ² tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[5:16]  ³ tn Heb “they will say, ‘Ah! Ah!’” The Hebrew term הוֹ (ho, “ah, woe”) is an alternate form of הוֹי (hoy), a word used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow. See 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5. This wordplay follows quickly, as v. 18 begins with הוֹי (“woe”).

[5:16]  ⁴ tn Or “farmers” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “those who know lamentation.”

[5:16]  sn Professional mourners are referred to elsewhere in the OT (2 Chr 35:25; Jer 9:17) and ancient Near Eastern literature. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 180.

[8:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.

[8:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  sn Shaving the head or tearing out one’s hair was a ritual act of mourning. See Lev 21:5; Deut 14:1; Isa 3:24; 15:2; Jer 47:5; 48:37; Ezek 7:18; 27:31; Mic 1:16.

[8:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[9:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ¹² sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ¹³ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”