Amos 8:8-10

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Amos 8:8 tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).
2. Amos 8:8 tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.
3. Amos 8:8 tn Heb “all of it.”
4. Amos 8:8 tc The MT reads “like the light” (כָאֹר, khaʾor; note this term also appears in v. 9), which is commonly understood to be an error for “like the Nile” (כִּיאוֹר, kiʾor). 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 Nile River.
5. Amos 8:8 tn Or “churn.”
6. Amos 8:8 tn Or “sink back down.” The translation assumes the verb שָׁקַע (shaqaʿ), following the Qere.
7. Amos 8:8 tn The entire verse is phrased in a series of rhetorical questions that 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.
8. Amos 8:9 tn Heb “in a day of light.”
9. Amos 8:10 tn Heb “mourning.”
10. Amos 8:10 tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.
11. Amos 8:10 tn 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.
12. Amos 8:10 tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”
13. Amos 8:10 tn 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.