In languages where long quotations are confusing or where the mention of the Lord speaking in verse 11 will sound like the end of a quotation, the speaker can be introduced here again: “And the LORD continues to say.”

But you made the Nazirites drink wine may simply mean “but you made the Nazirites break their vow.”

Wine, see Amos 2.8.

And commanded the prophets, saying, “You shall not prophesy.”/and ordered the prophets not to speak my message. For some languages it will be perfectly natural to have the direct words quoted as in Hebrew (see Revised Standard Version), even though this quotation is inside another quotation. In other languages the direct quotation should be avoided, as it has been in the Good News Translation. Compare: “and forbade the prophets to prophesy” (The Translator’s Old Testament). Prophesy can best be rendered as speak my message or “speak my things,” or, indirectly, “speak the things of God.”

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 .