Amos 9

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: "Strike the tops of the pillars so that the doorframes shake. Break them down on the heads of all the people. Whoever is left I will kill with the sword. No one who runs will get away. No one who tries to escape will be saved.

1I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

NoteThe altar is the raised platform where animals were killed and burned as offerings; it stood in the courtyard of a sanctuary. Amos does not name which sanctuary, but the shrine at Bethel, where he had been preaching, is the likely one. The Hebrew preposition can mean either "beside" or "on top of" the altar. The King James "cut them in the head" translates a difficult Hebrew line; it means the smashed roof falls on the heads of the worshipers below.

2Even if they dig their way down to the world of the dead, my hand will pull them out of there. Even if they climb up to the heavens, I will bring them down from there.

2Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

NoteThe King James "hell" is Sheol, which in Hebrew is not a place of punishment for the wicked but the underground realm where all the dead go, good and bad alike. The point here is direction (the deepest place down, paired with the highest place up), not judgment after death.

3Even if they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will hunt them there and take them. Even if they hide from my sight on the floor of the sea, I will order the serpent there to bite them.

3And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

NoteMount Carmel is the wooded ridge running to the Mediterranean coast in northern Israel, honeycombed with caves and thick forest; it was the proverbial place to disappear. The "serpent" is the sea-monster of older Near Eastern storytelling, the creature imagined as living in the deep, here it takes orders like everything else.

4Even if their enemies march them away as prisoners, I will order the sword to kill them there. I will keep my eyes on them to harm them and not to help them."

4And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

Note"I will set my eyes upon them" was ordinary language for a ruler's attention and favor, as in watching over someone for their good. Amos turns the phrase inside out.

5The Lord GOD, commander of armies, is the one who touches the land and it melts, and everyone living in it mourns. The whole land rises like the Nile and then sinks back down, like the river of Egypt.

5And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

Note"Lord of hosts" (rendered here "commander of armies") is a standing title, the hosts being armies either of heaven or of Israel. The image in the second half is the Nile: every year it swelled far over its banks and then dropped back. Amos says the ground itself will heave and settle that way, earthquake language, which runs through the whole book.

6He is the one who builds his upper rooms in the heavens and sets their foundation, the arch of the sky, over the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth. The LORD is his name.

6It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.

NoteThe picture is God's house built as a multi-story building: the living quarters upstairs in the sky, resting on a foundation laid over the earth. The Hebrew word behind "his troop" in the King James is uncertain; it is usually taken as the vault or dome of the sky, which ancient readers pictured as a solid arch holding back the waters above.

7"People of Israel, are you any different to me than the people of Cush?" says the LORD. "I brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt. But I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir.

7Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

NoteCush (the King James "Ethiopians") was the land up the Nile south of Egypt, in today's Sudan (for Israelites, the far edge of the known world, a people with no shared history with them at all. Caphtor is most likely Crete, where the Philistines are said to have come from. Kir is a place no longer identifiable; Amos elsewhere says the Arameans would be sent back there. The Arameans (the King James "Syrians") were Israel's neighbors to the north-east and frequent enemies. The claim is that Israel's exodus from Egypt was not a one-off privilege) God moved those other nations too.

8Look, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will wipe it off the face of the earth. Yet I will not completely destroy the family of Jacob," says the LORD.

8Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.

Note"The house of Jacob" means the nation descended from Jacob, who was also named Israel. "House" here is family line, not a building.

9"Look, I will give the order, and I will shake the family of Israel among all the nations, the way grain is shaken in a sieve. Yet not one pebble will fall to the ground.

9For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "least grain" in the King James and "pebble" here can mean either a pebble or a bundle, and the image can be read two ways: either the shaking loses not a single good grain, or the hard stones caught in the grain never drop through. Amos leaves it open.

10All the sinners among my people will die by the sword. They are the ones who say, 'Trouble will never catch up with us or meet us head on.'"

10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

Note"Prevent" in the King James is the old sense of the word (to come at you from in front, to meet you head on), not the modern sense of stopping something from happening.

11"When that day comes, I will raise up again the shelter of David, which has fallen down. I will close up the gaps in its walls, rebuild what is in ruins, and put it up as it was long ago.

11In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

NoteThe King James "tabernacle" translates a Hebrew word for a booth or hut, the temporary brushwood shelter thrown up in a field at harvest. David's royal line is pictured as one of these that has collapsed and will be propped up again. The Hebrew switches between "its" and "his" across the verse, so the thing rebuilt is at once the shelter and the man's household.

12Then they will take over what is left of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name," says the LORD, who will do this.

12That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

NoteEdom was the nation south-east of Judah, traced back to Esau, Jacob's brother, and a long-standing rival. To be "called by my name" was the ordinary legal idiom for belonging to an owner, the way a captured city was renamed after its conqueror. The ancient Greek translation read the Hebrew for "Edom" as the similar-looking word for "mankind," and it is that version that is quoted in Acts 15.

13"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the one plowing will catch up with the one harvesting, and the one crushing grapes will catch up with the one planting seed. Sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and all the hills will flow with it.

13Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

NoteIn a normal year the crops were reaped in spring and early summer, the grapes trodden in late summer, and the ground plowed and sown in autumn, each job finishing well before the next began. The picture is of a harvest so large that the plowman is still waiting on the reaper when it is time to plow again. "Sweet wine" is new wine, straight from the press and not yet fully fermented.

14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them. They will make gardens and eat the fruit they grow.

14And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Note"Bring again the captivity" is a King James rendering of a Hebrew phrase that means to reverse someone's fortunes, to put things back as they were. Deportation is part of what is being undone, but the phrase covers the whole loss.

15I will plant them in their own land, and they will never again be pulled up out of the land I have given them," says the LORD your God.

15And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.