Come/Go. The choice of go or come depends upon the system of showing directions in a language. As we said in Translating Amos, Section 3, Bethel itself is the viewpoint place of the book of Amos. In some languages where this makes a difference, it may be best to translate “come to Bethel” and “go to Gilgal.”
To Bethel … Gilgal/the holy place in Bethel … Gilgal. Hebrew has only Bethel and Gilgal, but these towns are named because important places of worship were there, and this worship in these holy places is being emphasized in the passage. Other languages will usually need to follow Good News Translation and make this meaning clear for Bethel, and probably for Gilgal as well. Another possibility for holy place would be “God’s place” or “the place where people worship God” or “God’s house.” The holy place was at a small distance from the town of Bethel on the east side, and Gilgal was approximately 30 kilometers southeast of Bethel in the Jordan Valley.
Transgress/sin translates a Hebrew verb which is used only here in the book of Amos. (On the noun, see 1.3.) “Rebellion” is an important part of the meaning in this context. The New English Bible has translated with such an emphasis: “Come to Bethel—and rebel! Come to Gilgal—and rebel the more!” A translator who follows this example will usually have to make clear against whom the rebellion is taking place: “rebel against me.” However, in some situations a translation of “rebel” would be misleading because of political situations which make it sound good instead of bad. “Disobey” might be another possibility: “(You) come to my house at Bethel—and disobey me! (You) go (and) worship me at Gilgal—and disobey me all the more!”
If you must. By the use of these words Good News Translation is trying to make it clear that God is not really commanding the people to sin, but the English expression may not help very much and probably cannot be translated. The suggestion under 4.4-5 is probably more helpful.
Multiply/with all your might! The Hebrew indicates some increase in frequency of time or quality. Some languages have grammatical ways of showing such meaning. In other cases it will be necessary to express the meaning in a word or phrase: “sin the more” (New American Bible), “commit still more sins” (The Translator’s Old Testament), “pile sin on sin” (Moffatt), sin with all your might, etc.
Every morning … every three days/morning after morning … every third day (see also Smith-Goodspeed, New American Bible, The Translator’s Old Testament). This way of understanding the Hebrew sees it as an extreme exaggeration, because the custom was to bring a sacrifice once a year, and the tithe payment every third year. The majority of scholars, however, understand the Hebrew to mean that people brought their sacrifice on the morning of the day after their arrival and their tithe payments on the following day, the third one (counted from the day of arrival) or two days after arrival. “Bring your sacrifices for the morning, your tithes within three days” (New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible).
Some languages may have specific words for “tomorrow” or even “early tomorrow morning” and for “the day after tomorrow,” and these can sometimes be used. However, such expressions might make the translation sound like Amos is speaking to the people at the entrance of the holy place the moment of their arrival (for which there is no evidence); if so, it would be better to look for another expression. Other languages may simply count the days, but they may differ as to the point from which they start counting. So “third day” may have to be translated “second day.”
Bring your sacrifices/Go ahead and bring animals to be sacrificed. The Hebrew means the sacrifice of animals, which Good News Translation makes clear. If one must indicate who does the sacrificing, then: “Bring your animals for the priest to sacrifice.” Where there are no special words for sacrifice one may have to say “bring animals to be killed.” It may or may not be necessary to show that this is a gift for God according to whether the setting of the holy place and worship does or does not make this clear.
Go ahead and is simply an English way of expressing the urging which God is pretending to do.
Your tithes/bring your tithes. In all modern English translations the technical term “tithes” has been used, since the word has become part of English religious vocabulary. Even where this is the case, however, it may be helpful to give a more detailed explanation of the term in the glossary, basing the explanation on Good News Translation. Where Islamic influence is strong, translators in local languages have sometimes used an Arabic loan word (zakat), although zakat is a social tax for the benefit of the poor and not necessarily ten percent. In Israel the poor were helped by the tithes (Deut 14.28 and following, and Deut 26.12-15), but these were mainly for the benefit of the priests. However, there are important historical and local differences in the practice of the payment of these “taxes” which make them roughly equivalent. Elsewhere a descriptive phrase will have to be used, such as “bring/pay/offer a tenth of what you have earned” or “a tenth of your crops.”
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 .