Thus I will do to you/I am going to punish you. This is a transitional verse and for the way to relate it to the other passages and paragraphs, see 4.4.

The verse is rather difficult because we cannot be sure what this (or thus) refers to. All commentators agree that this cannot refer directly back to one of the punishments in the preceding paragraphs since all these things took place before. They also agree that this does not seem to refer to future events described in the beginning of the next chapter because these form a different section of the book, and verses 12-13 are the end of a section. Some scholars think that this problem came about through changes which were made by early scribes. A more natural explanation is that this refers to some threatening gesture or to something the first hearers could see on the spot and which did not need any explanation to those who could see it.

All this may help to understand the text, but is will certainly not help the translation as we do not know what the gesture was, anyhow. So the translation may have to be vague and unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, if it is impossible for the receptor language to refer to the punishment as this, the translator will have to say something like “I am going to punish you severely.” Such a rendering would be based on purely translational considerations.

Good News Translation has tried to solve the problem by translating first I am going to punish you, and then this in the next sentence refers back to the punishment. However, this restructuring causes unnecessary and awkward repetition. It might be better to say: “So then, people of Israel, I am going to punish you. Get ready to face….”

Prepare to meet your God/get ready to face my judgment. The meeting with God refers to judgment and punishment, so has to be qualified in translation: “face your God” (The Translator’s Old Testament) or face my judgment. In some languages it will be good to say something like “prepare yourself to meet God, who will judge you.” Your God is a fixed saying, like God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in 4.11. It can be translated in various ways: my judgment; “me, your God”; “me, your God, who will judge you”; “me, as I judge you.”

This is the end of the LORD’s speaking until 5.3. If the receptor language indicates such an ending, see the discussion at 1.2.

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 .