Amos 1-3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
I. Editorial Introduction
Chapter 1
1 The words of Amos, who was one of the sheepbreeders from Tekoa,(A) which he received in a vision concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.[a] 2 He said:
The Lord roars from Zion,[b]
and raises his voice from Jerusalem;
The pastures of the shepherds languish,
and the summit of Carmel withers.(B)
II. Oracles Against the Nations[c]
Aram
3 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Damascus, and now four—[d]
I will not take it back—
Because they threshed Gilead
with sledges of iron,
4 I will send fire upon the house of Hazael,
and it will devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.[e](C)
5 I will break the barred gate of Damascus;
From the Valley of Aven[f] I will cut off the one enthroned,
And the sceptered ruler from Beth-eden;
the people of Aram shall be exiled to Kir,(D) says the Lord.
Philistia
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Gaza, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they exiled an entire population,
handing them over to Edom,
7 I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza,
and it will devour its strongholds;
8 From Ashdod I will cut off the one enthroned
and the sceptered ruler from Ashkelon;
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
and the last of the Philistines shall perish,
says the Lord God.
Tyre
9 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Tyre, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they handed over an entire population to Edom,
and did not remember their covenant of brotherhood,[g]
10 I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre,
and it will devour its strongholds.
Edom
11 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Edom, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because he pursued his brother[h] with the sword,
suppressing all pity,
Persisting in his anger,
his wrath raging without end,
12 I will send fire upon Teman,
and it will devour the strongholds of Bozrah.[i]
Ammon
13 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of the Ammonites, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,(E)
in order to extend their territory,
14 I will kindle a fire upon the wall of Rabbah,[j]
and it will devour its strongholds
Amid war cries on the day of battle,
amid stormwind on the day of tempest.
15 Their king shall go into exile,
he and his princes with him, says the Lord.
Chapter 2
Moab
1 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Moab, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because he burned to ashes[k]
the bones of Edom’s king,
2 I will send fire upon Moab,
and it will devour the strongholds of Kerioth;
Moab shall meet death amid uproar,
battle cries and blasts of the ram’s horn.
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
and all the princes I will slay with him, says the Lord.
Judah
4 [l]Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Judah, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they spurned the instruction of the Lord,(F)
and did not keep his statutes;
Because the lies[m] which their ancestors followed
have led them astray,
5 I will send fire upon Judah,
and it will devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Israel,[n] and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they hand over the just for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals;(G)
7 They trample the heads of the destitute
into the dust of the earth,
and force the lowly out of the way.
Son and father sleep with the same girl,[o]
profaning my holy name.
8 Upon garments taken in pledge
they recline beside any altar.[p](H)
Wine at treasury expense
they drink in their temples.
9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them,
who were as tall as cedars,
and as strong as oak trees.
I destroyed their fruit above
and their roots beneath.(I)
10 It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and who led you through the desert for forty years,
to occupy the land of the Amorites;
11 I who raised up prophets among your children,
and nazirites[q] among your young men.
Is this not so, Israelites?—
oracle of the Lord.
12 But you made the nazirites drink wine,
and commanded the prophets, “Do not prophesy!”(J)
13 Look, I am groaning beneath you,
as a wagon groans when laden with sheaves.
14 Flight shall elude the swift,
and the strong shall not retain strength;(K)
The warrior shall not save his life,
15 nor shall the archer stand his ground;
The swift of foot shall not escape,
nor shall the horseman save his life.
16 And the most stouthearted of warriors
shall flee naked on that day—
oracle of the Lord.
III. Threefold Summons to Hear the Word of the Lord
Chapter 3
First Summons
1 Hear this word, Israelites, that the Lord speaks concerning you,
concerning the whole family I brought up from the land of Egypt:
2 You alone I have known,[r]
among all the families of the earth;(L)
Therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
3 [s]Do two journey together
unless they have agreed?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den
unless it has seized something?
5 Does a bird swoop down on a trap on the ground
when there is no lure for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground
without catching anything?
6 Does the ram’s horn sound in a city
without the people becoming frightened?
Does disaster befall a city
unless the Lord has caused it?(M)
7 (Indeed, the Lord God does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.)
8 The lion has roared,
who would not fear?(N)
The Lord God has spoken,
who would not prophesy?
9 Proclaim this in the strongholds of Assyria,[t]
in the strongholds of the land of Egypt:
“Gather on the mount of Samaria,
and see the great disorders within it,
the oppressions within its midst.”[u]
10 They do not know how to do what is right—
oracle of the Lord—
Storing up in their strongholds
violence and destruction.
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
An enemy shall surround the land,
tear down your fortresses,
and pillage your strongholds.
12 Thus says the Lord:
As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion
a pair of sheep’s legs or the tip of an ear,
So shall the Israelites escape,
those who dwell in Samaria,
With the corner of a couch
or a piece of a cot.[v]
13 Hear and bear witness against the house of Jacob—
an oracle of the Lord God, the God of hosts:
14 On the day when I punish Israel for its crimes,
I will also punish the altars of Bethel;
The horns of the altar shall be broken off
and fall to the ground.[w](O)
15 I will strike the winter house
and the summer house;
The houses of ivory shall lie in ruin,
and their many rooms shall be no more—
oracle of the Lord.
Footnotes
- 1:1 The earthquake: a major earthquake during the reign of Uzziah (ca. 783–742 B.C.), so devastating that it was remembered long afterwards (cf. Zec 14:5). See the description of an earthquake in Amos’s final vision (9:1).
- 1:2 Significantly, the roar comes to the Northern Kingdom from Jerusalem. This verse, perhaps an editorial remark, sets the tone of Amos’s message.
- 1:3–2:16 All the nations mentioned here may have been part of the ideal empire of David-Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs 5:1; 2 Kgs 14:25). Certain standards of conduct were expected not only in their relations with Israel but also with one another.
- 1:3 For three crimes…and now four: this formula (n, n + 1) is frequent in poetry (e.g., Prv 6:16–19; 30:18–19). The progression “three” followed by “four” here suggests a climax. The fourth crime is one too many and exhausts the Lord’s forbearance.
- 1:4 Hazael…Ben-hadad: kings of the Arameans whose capital was Damascus (v. 5); they fought against Israel (2 Kgs 13:3) and had long occupied the region of Gilead (v. 3) in Transjordan.
- 1:5 Valley of Aven: lit., “valley of wickedness,” perhaps a distortion of a place name in Aramean territory, identity unknown. Beth-eden: an Aramean city-state on the Euphrates, about two hundred miles northeast of Damascus, called Bit-adini in Assyro-Babylonian texts. Kir: cf. 9:7; probably to be identified with the city of Emar on the Euphrates, a major Aramean center in the Late Bronze Age. One text from this site calls the king of Emar “the king of the people of the land of Kir.”
- 1:9 Did not remember their covenant of brotherhood: standard diplomatic language of this period, meaning “violated the treaty.” The violation may not have been against Israel itself but against a fellow “subject” nation of the ideal Davidic-Solomonic empire (cf. 2:1).
- 1:11 Pursued his brother: “brother” here may denote a fellow vassal or subject of Israel.
- 1:12 Teman…Bozrah: two of the chief cities of Edom; cf. Jer 49:20.
- 1:14 Rabbah: now called Amman, the modern capital of Jordan.
- 2:1 He burned to ashes: to the peoples of the Near East, burning the bones of the dead was a particularly heinous crime, as it was believed to cause the spirits of these dead to wander without any hope of interment in their graves, where they could rest in peace.
- 2:4–8, 12 Unlike the crimes of the nations detailed in this section, which are wrongs against other nations, those of Judah and Israel named here are violations of the Lord’s demands.
- 2:4 The lies: false gods worshiped by the Judahites.
- 2:6 Israel: Amos’s audience would applaud his condemnation of foreign kingdoms in the foregoing seven oracles, especially of Judah. But now he adds an eighth, unexpected oracle—against Israel itself. This is the real “punch line” of this whole section, to which the preceding oracles serve mainly as introduction.
- 2:7 Son and father sleep with the same girl: the crime condemned here may be the misuse of power by the rich who take unfair advantage of young women from the ranks of the poor and force themselves on them, thus adding oppression to the sin of impurity.
- 2:8 Upon garments…any altar: creditors kept the garments taken as pledges from the poor instead of returning them to their owners before nightfall as the law commanded (Ex 22:25; cf. Dt 24:12). Wine…in their temples: lavish feasts for the rich, serving the finest wines in great abundance (see 6:4–7) and funded by the treasuries of local temples (e.g., at Dan and Bethel). The Hebrew in this verse is difficult. Another possible translation would be: “And the wine of those who have been fined / they drink in the house of their god.”
- 2:11 Nazirites: see note on Nm 6:2–21. Oracle of the Lord: a phrase used extensively in prophetic books to indicate divine speech.
- 3:2 You alone I have known: precisely because Israel enjoyed a special status among the nations of the world in the eyes of the Lord (but see 9:7) it was called to a high degree of fidelity to God. Because Israel has failed in this expectation, it must experience God’s punishment.
- 3:3–8 The metaphors in these sayings illustrate the principle of cause and effect, and lead up to the conclusion in v. 8.
- 3:9 Assyria: following the Greek version, the Hebrew text has “Ashod.” It is supposed that this was a copyist’s error: “Assyria” seems intended, in order to parallel “Egypt” in the next line.
- 3:9 With a keen sense of irony, Amos invites the most powerful oppressors in Israel’s memory, past and present—Egypt and Assyria—to see and marvel at the great oppression and injustice being wrought within Samaria by the people of Israel.
- 3:12 The “escape” is clearly a disaster, not a deliverance.
- 3:14 On Bethel, see also 4:4; 5:5–6; and 7:13. The prophet is condemning the religiosity and formalism of the worship by Israel’s leaders.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.