1. Tekoa. This is a village in the vicinity of Jerusalem. There is no evidence for a Tekoa in the north, although some scholars have sought to place Amos there because he later identifies himself as a trimmer of sycamore trees, not known to be cultivated in the southern region. The case remains convincing that Amos was a Judahite who undertook a prophetic mission to the northern kingdom.

two years before the earthquake. This was obviously a well-remembered event. There is some archaeological evidence for such a seismic event around 770 B.C.E. or slightly later. It is not clear whether Amos’s prophesying begins or ends then, though beginning may be more likely.

3. For three trespasses of Damascus / and for four. In context, pesha ʿaim means something like “atrocities” or “crimes against humanity,” but this translation respects the stylistic decorum of the Hebrew, which hews to general terms that may take on a distinctive coloration according to context. There are neither three nor four trespasses listed here that a reader can count. Rather, this is a common biblical idiom, occurring several times in Proverbs, with the sense, “a certain few, and even one more.” Because the three and four together add up to a formulaic seven, some have proposed that they indicate a totality. There is no way of knowing whether these dire prophecies about the surrounding nations were actually the beginning of Amos’s message, but they certainly would have provided a means of drawing in the Israelite audience with something they wanted to hear before the prophet launched on a denunciation of that very audience. The formulaic repetition of these lines for one nation after another generates a kind of hypnotic drumbeat.

I will not turn it back. The object of the verb is left unspecified, perhaps deliberately and ominously, but it would have to be something like “retribution” or “wrath.”

Gilead. This is an area in the northeastern sector of the kingdom of Israel.

4. the house of Hazael. Hazael and Ben-Hadad designate the royal house of Aram, the capital of which is Damascus.

5. break the bolt. The bolt is the heavy iron bar that secures the gates of the city.

Kir. This is a city in the far north, perhaps near Armenia.

6. Gaza. In Amos’s time, Gaza was the principal Philistine city, though three others are mentioned in the following lines. The view has now swung from north to south.

for their inflicting a total exile. The identity of those exiled is unspecified. In any case, uprooting an entire population means putting an end to its national existence and hence is viewed as a war crime.

9. Tyre. This is the principal Phoenician city, so the perspective moves north again, along the Mediterranean coast.

11. Edom. Now we are in the southeast, across the Jordan.

his brothers. Since Esau, Jacob’s brother, is the purported ancestor of the Edomites, the Israelites would be their “brothers.”

stifling his compassion. Because of the unusual verb, which usually means “lay ruins to” or “destroy,” some scholars have suggested that the phrase has the sense of “destroying his [Israel’s] wombs,” an alternative term for splitting open pregnant women.

bore a grudge. The Masoretic Text reads wayitrof . . . ʾapo, “and his anger ravaged,” but three ancient versions reflect wayitor (dropping the last consonant of the verb), and Jeremiah 3:5 shows precisely this poetic parallelism of n-t-r / sh-m-r.

13. so as to expand their borders. This is an explanation for the savagery perpetrated on the pregnant women. Not only are they murdered, but their offspring are as well, so there will be no one left in the future to lay claim to the territory. This looks very much like genocide.

14. Rabbah. The capital city of Ammon.