I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel/I will bring my people back to their land. The Hebrew is not clear. Most scholars take it to mean something like “reverse the fortunes of,” as in Revised Standard Version (also Smith-Goodspeed, New English Bible); or “I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel” (New American Bible, The Translator’s Old Testament). Good News Translation translates the same meaning more directly: I will bring my people back to their land. Some translations may have to say “you” or “you, my people.”

And they shall rebuild … and drink their wine/They will rebuild … and drink the wine. This is the reversal of the punishment predicted in 5.11. However, 9.14 has the addition and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit/they will plant gardens and eat what they grow.

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 .

I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them/I will plant my people on the land I gave them, and they will not be pulled up again. Them does not refer back to the fruit or gardens of the preceding verse, but to my people, which may need to be translated as “you.” The pictures of “planting” and “pulling up” people may be impossible in some languages. So the translator will have to try to replace the Hebrew picture by one which will mean “restore” or “establish.” Some languages may have such lively idioms as “press your rear end on the ground.” Or it may be best to translate the meaning directly: “I will let/cause you to own your own land again, the land which I gave you, and I will never again let you be taken away from it.”

Says the LORD your God/The LORD your God has spoken. See 9.12. If a forceful translation for this expression has been used throughout the book (see the comment at 1.5), it can be used here to give a strong, ringing final note to the whole book. In some languages it will be necessary to add, “Amos said” or “Amos finished speaking.”

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 .