Amos 6:14

6:14 “Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.”

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking.

“They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

Amos 8:11

8:11 Be certain of this, ⁶  the time is ⁷  coming,” says the sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land –

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation! ⁸ 

Amos 9:13

9:13 “Be sure of this, ⁹  the time is ¹⁰  coming,” says the Lord,

“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ¹¹ 

and the one who stomps the grapes ¹²  will overtake ¹³  the planter. ¹⁴ 

Juice will run down the slopes, ¹⁵ 

it will flow down all the hillsides. ¹⁶ 

[6:14]  ¹ tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”

[6:14]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[6:14]  ³ sn Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” (לָחַץ, lakhats) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 (עָשַׁק, ’ashaq).

[6:14]  ⁴ tn Or “from the entrance to Hamath.” The Hebrew term לְבוֹא (lÿvo’) can either be translated or considered a part of the place name.

[6:14]  ⁵ sn Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25. Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.

[8:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the days are.”

[8:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “not a hunger for food or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.”

[9:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[9:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the days are.”

[9:13]  ¹¹ sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.

[9:13]  ¹² sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[9:13]  ¹⁴ sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.

[9:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.

[9:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”