11.1 AMOS 1:3–5

11.1.1 Translation

1.3. Thus says YHWH; “For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not bring it back; because they have threshed Gilead with iron threshing-sledges. 4. I will send fire on the house of Hazael, and I will devour the fortified palaces of Ben-Hadad. 5. I will break down the gate bars of Damascus. I will cut off the one who dwells in the Valley of Aven (or Avon) and the one who holds the sceptre in Beth-eden. And the people of Aram shall go into exile to Qir;” says YHWH.

11.1.2 Notes: final decision

Like Amos's other oracles against the nations, the oracle against Damascus begins with the formula “for three crimes of X, and for four”! This is the standard “n; n+1” formulation used in Proverbs 30:15–29 (Kassis 1999: 234–40). It denotes multiplicity (Stuart 1987: 310) and here indicates that the sin could be forgiven three times, but became unforgivable the fourth time (Andersen & Freedman 1989: 230–31). The word פשע, rendered as “transgression” in the NRSV, designates an “act of rebellion”. It belongs to the vocabulary of treaties and designates the rebellion of a vassal against his suzerain (ibid.: 231).

The second component of the opening formula is “I will not bring it back” (אשיבנו לא). Paul R. Noble (1995: 109) argues that this statement is deliberatively ambiguous and is opened to two contrary interpretations, “both of which are internally consistent and both of which cohere with other aspects of the book”.