The Hebrew begins with a word which gives a connection with the preceding section. The connection itself is roughly as follows (the parts in [ ] are a summary, not a translation):

verses 4-5 [You love to sin even when you are “worshiping” me.]
the connection: a Hebrew conjunction meaning “and even though”
verses 6-11 [I have repeatedly tried to make you repent by the punishments I sent you; you refused.]

In many translations no connection is expressed directly in words (see Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, New English Bible, Good News Translation) because 4-5 and 6-11 were separate messages, not connected when they were originally spoken. However, the place itself of the two messages one after the other in the present text suggests a connection to the reader now. The original separation is no longer true. If the use of connecting words is either necessary or preferable in any language, such a connection should be made. In languages where no connection has to be made in words, it is possible (but probably less helpful) not to express the connection.

I/I was the one who. (Compare New English Bible: “It was I who.”) The Hebrew puts particular emphasis on the I by using a separate pronoun as well as including it in the verb. To express such an emphasis, many languages have emphatic pronouns or other systems which can be used, in some cases very much like the Hebrew.

Gave you cleanness of teeth/brought famine. The unusual Hebrew expression cleanness of teeth is a picture or idiom for famine. Though the expression occurs only here, its meaning is certain because of lack of bread which follows in the next line. A literal translation (like Revised Standard Version, Smith-Goodspeed) does not make sense, however, and a translation based on a literal understanding of the expression, such as can be found in New American Bible (“though I have made your teeth clean of food”) and New English Bible (“kept teeth idle”), is misleading. If the language happens to have ways of expressing famine as a picture in a simple way, the translator should use it so that the impact of the original picture does not get completely lost in translation; for example: “I made your ribs protrude and your bellies swell.” However, this will often not be possible, so usually the meaning famine has to be translated directly. Some languages have no noun for famine, so the translation should be something like “I made (caused) that you had nothing to eat.”

And lack of bread in all your places/so that you had no food. This repeats the same point about famine in another way, and in some translations the two pictures should be combined or partly combined, as they have been in Good News Translation.

On the other hand, it is possible that in all your places is deliberately more general than all your cities, in order to emphasize the wide area of the famine: “not only in the towns, but also in the country” (so Moffatt: “your towns,” “over all the land”). So the passage could be condensed in another way (especially in languages which have no noun for famine) by saying, for example, “I made (caused) that you had nothing to eat either in your towns or in the country” or “I made (caused) that you had nothing to eat wherever you lived.” In languages which make a difference between a recent past and a remote past, the remote (if it is not a mythical or legendary remote past) should be used.

For another way of expressing yet you did not come back to me as “but that did not make you come back to me,” see 4.6-11. The Hebrew uses a rather strong word meaning that the movement completely reaches its mark: “all the way back….” Some languages have grammatical ways to express that particular emphasis. In languages which relate directions to a viewpoint place (Bethel, from which Amos is speaking) rather than a viewpoint person (God, who is speaking), the translation may be “go back to me” or “return, go to me.”

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 .