Passage

Amos 1.1

Book: Amos · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

And he said, Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither. 3. Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: (Amos 1:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

He said: “Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.” 3. Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; (Amos 1:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither. 3. Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: ^{and: or, yea, for four} ^{turn: or, convert it, or, let it be quiet} (Amos 1:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Words of Amos, who hath been among herdsmen of Tekoa, that he hath seen 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 shaking;

and he saith: Jehovah from Zion doth roar, And from Jerusalem giveth forth His voice, And mourned have pastures of the shepherds, And withered hath the top of Carmel! 3. And thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their threshing Gilead with sharp-pointed irons, (Amos 1:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The book's heading, introducing "the words of Amos." The oracles that follow are Amos's own, delivered as the word of the LORD.
Audience: Israel, the northern kingdom ("which he saw concerning Israel"), at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II.
Location: Amos came from Tekoa, a town of Judah south of Jerusalem, but prophesied in the northern kingdom, principally at Bethel (Amos 7:10-13).
Time period: c. 760-750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Amos is generally reckoned the earliest of the writing prophets.

Theological reading

A prophet without credentials. The heading identifies Amos by his trade, not by an office: he "was among the herdsmen of Tekoa." The Hebrew word, noqed, occurs only twice in the Old Testament, here and of Mesha king of Moab, a "sheepmaster" who paid Israel a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs (2 Kings 3:4). It points to a man who owned or managed flocks, not a hired hand. Amos makes the same point to the priest of Bethel: "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son" (Amos 7:14).

Words that he saw. The heading speaks of "the words of Amos... which he saw." The message is presented as something received in vision before it is spoken, and the book bears this out in its five visions (7:1-3, 7:4-6, 7:7-9, 8:1-3, 9:1-4).

Anchored in public time. Two named kings and a remembered disaster fix the date. Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel ruled the two kingdoms in a season of expansion and wealth (2 Kings 14:25-28; 2 Chronicles 26:6-15). The earthquake was remembered long afterward: Zechariah speaks of fleeing "like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah" (Zechariah 14:5). A book that dates its words by a public event is claiming to be history, open to being checked.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.