Amos 2:13-16

13-16. The punishment. Righteous retribution will overtake the sinful nation. Amos 2:13 is rendered more acceptably in the R.V., “Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.”

Behold I will The Hebrew construction implies the imminence of the judgment; better, “Behold, I am about to” (G.-K., 116p).

Press you in your place The meaning of the verb, which occurs only here in the Old Testament, is doubtful. The cognate verb in Arabic means “to hinder,” “to cause to stop”; hence, “I will cause a stop under you.” If this meaning is accepted, the form of the second verb demands the translation “as a cart causes a stop.” This is strange, since we would expect “as a cart is caused to stop.” Others so R.V. connect the verb with the Aramaic and read, “I will press you in your place”; literally, I will press under you, which is thought to mean that he will hold them fast in their place, so that they cannot escape. This also is not without difficulties. (1) “I will press you in your place” would be quite satisfactory, but “I will press under you,” the literal rendering, is not so intelligible; and in the second clause, “as a cart is pressed,” would give good sense, not so “as a cart presseth.” (2) The presence of an Aramaic word in Hebrew at the time of Amos is peculiar. (3) Amos 2:14 implies flight, though the fugitives will be overtaken; nothing is said there about inability to move. For these reasons most commentators accept the emendation of Hitzig, who reads Amos 2:13, “Behold, I am about to cause it to totter under you, even as a wagon totters that is full of sheaves”; that is, the ground will totter under them a figure of approaching ruin.