Amos 7:1-4

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ²  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ³ ) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ⁴ 

How can Jacob survive? ⁵ 

He is too weak!” ⁶ 

7:3 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁷  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁸  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁹  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

[7:1]  ¹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “small.”

[7:3]  ⁷ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).