Amos 5:18

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe ¹  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 7:8

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. ² 

Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ³  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ⁴ 

Amos 4:13

4:13 For here he is!

He ⁵  formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals ⁶  his plans ⁷  to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness ⁸ 

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord, the God who commands armies, ⁹  is his name!”

Amos 3:7

3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:4-5

3:4 Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? ¹⁰ 

Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?

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 6:13

6:13 You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar. ¹¹ 

You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim ¹²  by our own power?”

Amos 3:3

3:3 Do two walk together without having met? ¹³ 

Amos 5:12

5:12 Certainly ¹⁴  I am aware of ¹⁵  your many rebellious acts ¹⁶ 

and your numerous sins.

You ¹⁷  torment the innocent, you take bribes,

and you deny justice to ¹⁸  the needy at the city gate. ¹⁹ 

Amos 7:7

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ²⁰  the sovereign One ²¹  standing by a tin ²²  wall holding tin in his hand.

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ²³  in a city, do people not fear? ²⁴ 

If disaster overtakes a ²⁵  city, is the Lord not responsible? ²⁶ 

Amos 3:10

3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)

“They store up ²⁷  the spoils of destructive violence ²⁸  in their fortresses.

Amos 5:13

5:13 For this reason whoever is smart ²⁹  keeps quiet ³⁰  in such a time,

for it is an evil ³¹  time.

Amos 7:5

7:5 I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop!

How can Jacob survive? ³² 

He is too weak!” ³³ 

Amos 7:16

7:16 So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach ³⁴  against the family of Isaac!’

Amos 6:2

6:2 They say to the people: ³⁵ 

“Journey over to Calneh and look at it!

Then go from there to Hamath-Rabbah! ³⁶ 

Then go down to Gath of the Philistines!

Are they superior to our two ³⁷  kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?” ³⁸ 

Amos 1:2

God Will Judge the Surrounding Nations

1:2 Amos ³⁹  said:

“The Lord comes roaring ⁴⁰  out of Zion;

from Jerusalem ⁴¹  he comes bellowing! ⁴² 

The shepherds’ pastures wilt; ⁴³ 

the summit of Carmel ⁴⁴  withers.” ⁴⁵ 

Amos 5:25

5:25 You did not bring me ⁴⁶  sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family ⁴⁷  of Israel.

Amos 6:12

6:12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?

Can one plow the sea with oxen? ⁴⁸ 

Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,

and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. ⁴⁹ 

Amos 7:1-2

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁵⁰  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ⁵¹  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ⁵² ) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ⁵³ 

How can Jacob survive? ⁵⁴ 

He is too weak!” ⁵⁵ 

Amos 7:10

Amos Confronts a Priest

7:10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel ⁵⁶  sent this message ⁵⁷  to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very heart of the kingdom of Israel! ⁵⁸  The land cannot endure all his prophecies. ⁵⁹ 

Amos 9:7

9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” ⁶⁰  says the Lord.

“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor ⁶¹  and the Arameans from Kir. ⁶² 

Amos 6:10

6:10 When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, ⁶³  pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!” ⁶⁴ 

[5:18]  ¹ 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.

[7:8]  ² tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[4:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.

[4:13]  ⁶ tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (’adam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.

[4:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Other options include: (1) “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, add the conjunction (“and”) between the two nouns. (2) “He turns darkness into glimmering dawn” (NJPS). See S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 154), who takes שָׁחַר (shakhar) as “blackness” rather than “dawn” and עֵיפָה (’efah) as “glimmering dawn” rather than “darkness.”

[4:13]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “without having prey [or “food”].”

[6:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “those who rejoice over Lo-Debar.”

[6:13]  sn Lo-Debar was located across the Jordan River in Gilead, which the Israelite army had conquered. However, there is stinging irony here, for in Hebrew the name Lo-Debar means “nothing.” In reality Israel was happy over nothing of lasting consequence.

[6:13]  ¹² sn Karnaim was also located across the Jordan River. The name in Hebrew means “double horned.” Since an animal’s horn was a symbol of strength (see Deut 33:17), the Israelites boasted in this victory over a town whose very name symbolized military power.

[3:3]  ¹³ sn The rhetorical questions in vv. 3-5 expect the answer, “No, of course not!” Those in v. 6 anticipate the answer, “Yes, of course they do/he is.” They all draw attention to the principle of cause and effect and lay the logical foundation for the argument in vv. 7-8. Also note the progression from a general question in v. 3 to the “meetings” of two animals (v. 4), to that of an animal and a human trap (v. 5), to a climax with the confrontation with the Lord (v. 6). Each of these meetings is disastrous.

[5:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for.”

[5:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).

[5:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.

[5:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Those who.”

[5:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).

[5:12]  ¹⁹ sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.

[7:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ²¹ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ²² 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.

[3:6]  ²³ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[3:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “those who.”

[3:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.

[5:13]  ²⁹ tn Or “the wise”; or “the prudent.” Another option is to translate “the successful, prosperous” and understand this as a reference to the rich oppressors. See G. V. Smith, Amos, 169-70. In this case the following verb will also have a different nuance, that is, the wealthy remain silent before the abuses they perpetuate. See the note on the verb translated “keeps quiet” later in this verse.

[5:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “moans, laments,” from a homonymic verbal root. If the rich oppressors are in view, then the verb (whether translated “will be silenced” or “will lament”) describes the result of God’s judgment upon them. See G. V. Smith, Amos, 170.

[5:13]  ³¹ tn If this is a judgment announcement against the rich, then the Hebrew phrase עֵת רָעָה (’et ra’ah) must be translated, “[a] disastrous time.” See G. V. Smith, Amos, 170.

[7:5]  ³² tn Heb “stand.”

[7:5]  ³³ tn Heb “small.”

[7:16]  ³⁴ tn The verb, which literally means “to drip,” appears to be a synonym of “to prophesy,” but it might carry a derogatory tone here, perhaps alluding to the impassioned, frenzied way in which prophets sometimes delivered their messages. If so, one could translate, “to drivel; to foam at the mouth” (see HALOT 694 s.v. נטף).

[6:2]  ³⁵ tn The words “They say to the people” are interpretive and supplied in the translation for clarification. The translation understands v. 2 as the boastful words, which the leaders (described in v. 1) spoke to those who came to them (v. 1b). Some interpret v. 2 differently, understanding the words as directed to the leaders by the prophet. Verse 2b would then be translated: “Are you (i.e., Israel and Judah) better than these kingdoms (i.e., Calneh, etc.)? Is your border larger than their border?” (This reading requires an emendation of the Hebrew text toward the end of the verse.) In this case the verse is a reminder to Judah/Israel that they are not superior to other nations, which have already fallen victim to military conquest. Consequently Judah/Israel should not expect to escape the same fate. Following this line of interpretation, some take v. 2 as a later addition since the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser III conquered Calneh, Hamath, and Gath after the time of Amos’ ministry. However, this conclusion is not necessary since the kingdoms mentioned here had suffered military setbacks prior to Amos’ time as well. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 201-4.

[6:2]  ³⁶ tn Or “Great Hamath” (cf. NIV); or “Hamath the great” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); the word “rabbah” means “great” in Hebrew.

[6:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “to these,” referring to Judah and Israel (see v. 1a).

[6:2]  ³⁸ tn Both rhetorical questions in this verse expect the answer “no.” If these words do come from the leaders, then this verse underscores their self-delusion of power (compare 6:13). The prophet had no such mistaken sense of national grandeur (7:2, 5).

[1:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he;” the referent (Amos) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:2]  ⁴⁰ sn The Lord, in his role of warrior-king, is compared to a lion. See 3:4, 8.

[1:2]  ⁴¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “gives his voice.”

[1:2]  ⁴³ tn Lexicographers debate whether there are two roots אָבַל (’aval), one signifying “mourn” and the other “be dry,” or simply one (“mourn”). The parallel verb (“withers”) might favor the first option and have the meaning “wilt away.” It is interesting to note, however, that the root appears later in the book in the context of lament (5:16; 8:8, 10; 9:5). Either 1:2 is a possible wordplay to alert the reader to the death that will accompany the judgment (the option of two roots), or perhaps the translation “mourns” is appropriate here as well (cf. KJV, NASB, NKJV, NJPS; see also D. J. A. Clines, “Was There an ’BL II ‘Be Dry’ in Classical Hebrew?” VT 42 [1992]: 1-10).

[1:2]  ⁴⁴ sn Carmel was a region known for its abundant plants and trees. See Isa 33:9; 35:2; Jer 50:19.

[1:2]  ⁴⁵ sn Loss of a land’s fertility is frequently associated with judgment in the OT and ancient Near Eastern literature.

[5:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Did you bring me…?” This rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The point seems to be this: Since sacrifices did not characterize God’s relationship with Israel during the nation’s formative years, the people should not consider them to be so fundamental. The Lord places a higher priority on justice than he does on empty ritual.

[5:25]  sn Like Jer 7:22-23, this passage seems to contradict the Pentateuchal accounts that indicate Israel did offer sacrifices during the wilderness period. It is likely that both Amos and Jeremiah overstate the case to emphasize the relative insignificance of sacrifices in comparison to weightier matters of the covenant. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 428.

[5:25]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[6:12]  ⁴⁸ tc Heb “Does one plow with oxen?” This obviously does not fit the parallelism, for the preceding rhetorical question requires the answer, “Of course not!” An error of fusion has occurred in the Hebrew, with the word יָם (yam, “sea”) being accidentally added as a plural ending to the collective noun בָּקָר (baqar, “oxen”). A proper division of the consonants produces the above translation, which fits the parallelism and also anticipates the answer, “Of course not!”

[6:12]  ⁴⁹ sn The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.

[7:1]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ⁵¹ sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1]  ⁵² tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:1]  sn This royal harvest may refer to an initial mowing of crops collected as taxes by the royal authorities.

[7:2]  ⁵³ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “small.”

[7:10]  ⁵⁶ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[7:10]  ⁵⁷ tn The direct object of the verb translated “sent” is elided in the Hebrew text. The words “this message” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “in the middle of the house of Israel.”

[7:10]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “words.”

[9:7]  ⁶⁰ tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.

[9:7]  sn Though Israel was God’s special covenant people (see 3:2a), the Lord emphasizes they are not inherently superior to the other nations subject to his sovereign rule.

[9:7]  ⁶¹ sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.

[9:7]  ⁶² tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.

[6:10]  ⁶³ tn The translation assumes that “their relatives” and “the ones who will burn the corpses” are in apposition. Another option is to take them as distinct individuals, in which case one could translate, “When their close relatives and the ones who will burn the corpses pick up…” The meaning of the form translated “the ones who burn the corpses” is uncertain. Another option is to translate, “the ones who prepare the corpses for burial” (NASB “undertaker”; cf. also CEV). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 215-16.

[6:10]  ⁶⁴ tn This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret. The Hebrew text literally reads, “And he will lift him up, his uncle, and the one burning him, to bring out bones from the house. And he will say to the one who is in the inner parts of the house, ‘Is there [anyone] still with you?’ And he will say, ‘Be quiet for not to invoke the name of the Lord.’” The translation assumes that the singular pronominal and verbal forms throughout the verse are collective or distributive. This last sentence has been interpreted in several ways: a command not to call on the name of the Lord out of fear that he might return again in judgment; the realization that it is not appropriate to seek a blessing in the Lord’s name upon the dead in the house since the judgment was deserved; an angry refusal to call on the Lord out of a sense that he has betrayed his people in allowing them to suffer.