(1-2) The LORD says … punish them. See Amos 1.3.

(3) Because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border/In their wars for more territory they even ripped open pregnant women in Gilead. The meaning is that when the Ammonites were fighting for more land they killed much of the population of Gilead and in so doing were especially cruel to pregnant women. Both events of “enlarging the territory” and committing atrocities happened at the same time, so the translator may have to say something like: “because, while extending their territory, they ripped open…” (compare New American Bible, Moffatt). Pregnant women in Gilead sometimes has to be translated as “pregnant women living in the land of Gilead.”

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .