Amos 8 (NET)

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw1 a basket of summer fruit.2

2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end3 has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins.4

3 The women singing in the temple5 will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere!6 Be quiet!”

4 Listen to this, you who trample7 the needy,

and do away with8 the destitute in the land.

5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival9 be over,10 so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end,11 so we can open up the grain bins?12

We’re eager13 to sell less for a higher price,14

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!15

6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor,16

a pair of sandals17 for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!”18

7 The Lord confirms this oath19 by the arrogance of Jacob:20

“I swear21 I will never forget all you have done!22

8 Because of this the earth23 will quake,24

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth25 will rise like the River Nile,26

it will surge upward27 and then grow calm,28 like the Nile in Egypt.29

9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day.30

10 I will turn your festivals into funerals,31

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes32

and cause every head to be shaved bald.33

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son;34

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day.35

11 Be certain of this,36 the time is37 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!38

12 People39 will stagger from sea to sea,40

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a revelation from41 the Lord,

but they will not find any.42

13 In that day your43 beautiful young women44 and your45 young men will faint from thirst.46 14 These are the ones who now take oaths47 in the name of the sinful idol goddess48 of Samaria.

They vow,49 ‘As surely as your god50 lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one51 lives, O Beer Sheba!’

But they will fall down and not get up again.”

18:1tn Heb “behold” or “look.” 28:1sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115. 38:2tn 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. 48:2tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.” 58:3tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV). 68:3tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.” 78:4tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7. 88:4tn Or “put an end to”; or “exterminate.” 98:5sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath. 108:5tn Heb “pass by.” 118:5tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line. 128:5tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored. 138:5tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification. 148:5tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer. 158:5tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”sn Rigged scales may refer to bending the crossbar or shifting the center point of the scales to make the amount weighed appear heavier than it actually was, thus cheating the buyer. 168:6tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”sn The expression trade silver for the poor refers to the slave trade. 178:6tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6. 188:6tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.” 198:7tn Or “swears.” 208:7sn In an oath one appeals to something permanent to emphasize one’s commitment to the promise. Here the Lord sarcastically swears by the arrogance of Jacob, which he earlier had condemned (6:8), something just as enduring as the Lord’s own life (see 6:8) or unchanging character (see 4:2). Other suggestions include that the Lord is swearing by the land, his most valuable possession (cf. Isa 4:2; Ps 47:4 [47:5 HT]); that this is a divine epithet analogous to “the Glory of Israel” (1 Sam 15:29); or that an ellipsis should be understood here, in which case the meaning is the same as that of 6:8 (“The Lord has sworn [by himself] against the arrogance of Jacob”). 218:7tn The words “I swear” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation because a self-imprecation is assumed in oaths of this type. 228:7tn Or “I will never forget all your deeds.” 238:8tn Or “land” (also later in this verse). 248:8tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet. 258:8tn Heb “all of it.” 268:8tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, kha’or; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, ki’or). See the parallel line and Amos 9:5. The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity. If this emendation is correct, in the Hebrew of Amos “Nile” is actually spelled three slightly different ways.sn The movement of the quaking earth is here compared to the annual flooding and receding of the River Nile. 278:8tn Or “churn.” 288:8tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’), following the Qere. 298:8tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions which anticipate the answer, “Of course!” (For example, the first line reads, “Because of this will the earth not quake?”). The rhetorical questions entrap the listener in the logic of the judgment of God (cf. 3:3-6; 9:7). The rhetorical questions have been converted to affirmative statements in the translation for clarity. 308:9tn Heb “in a day of light.” 318:10tn Heb “mourning.” 328:10tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief. 338:10tn 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).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. 348:10tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.” 358:10tn 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. 368:11tn Heb “behold” or “look.” 378:11tn Heb “the days are.” 388:11tn Heb “not a hunger for food or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.” 398:12tn Heb “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity. 408:12tn That is, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east – that is, across the whole land. 418:12tn Heb “looking for the word of.” 428:12tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet. 438:13tn Heb “the.” 448:13tn Or “virgins.” 458:13tn Heb “the.” 468:13tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet. 478:14tn Heb “those who swear.” 488:14tn Heb “the sin [or “guilt”] of Samaria.” This could be a derogatory reference to an idol-goddess popular in the northern kingdom, perhaps Asherah (cf. 2 Chr 24:18, where this worship is labeled “their guilt”), or to the golden calf at the national sanctuary in Bethel (Hos 8:6, 10:8). Some English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, CEV) repoint the word and read “Ashimah,” the name of a goddess worshiped in Hamath in Syria (see 2 Kgs 17:30). 498:14tn Heb “say.” 508:14sn Your god is not identified. It may refer to another patron deity who was not the God of Israel, a local manifestation of the Lord that was worshiped by the people there, or, more specifically, the golden calf image erected in Dan by Jeroboam I (see 1 Kgs 12:28-30). 518:14tc The MT reads, “As surely as the way [to] Beer Sheba lives,” or “As surely as the way lives, O Beer Sheba.” Perhaps the term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “the way”) refers to the pilgrimage route to Beersheba (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 272) or it may be a title for a god. The notion of pilgrimage appears elsewhere in the book (cf. 4:4-5; 5:4-5; 8:12). The translation above assumes an emendation to דֹּדְךְ (dodÿkh, “your beloved” or “relative”; the term also is used in 6:10) and understands this as referring either to the Lord (since other kinship terms are used of him, such as “Father”) or to another deity that was particularly popular in Beer Sheba. Besides the commentaries, see S. M. Olyan, “The Oaths of Amos 8:14” Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel, 121-49.