They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth/You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. In this verse the Hebrew speaks about the ones who are doing the hating (see Revised Standard Version), but in the next verse changes and speaks directly to them. The Hebrew continues speaking directly to them until verse 13 (which balances verse 10); in verse 13 it speaks about people once more, but they are different people.

Good News Translation simplifies the passage by speaking to the people right from the beginning. This keeps the passage much easier and avoids the problem that in some languages the use of they could mean nothing else than the strong who were destroyed in verse 9. Such a translation would certainly be wrong.

The setting of verse 10 is gate, which means the large space inside the city gate where court cases were judged. Since the place itself is not being emphasized in this context, court makes a better translation in English. Court should be translated in such a way that it indicates local judgment, not the judgment of a far-off national government. In some languages this will be “palaver house” or “village council” or “meeting of the elders,” etc.

The Hebrew has two words, to hate and to abhor, and the translator may want to look for two equivalent verbs if that would be best for the style of the translation. On the other hand, the words mean the same thing except for emotional differences between them, and may be combined into one word, as in Good News Translation.

It is hard to know who is being hated and abhorred in this verse. Probably they are people with the qualities translated in the Good News Translation: anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. In translating like this, however, in some languages it will be necessary to show whose injustice is intended: “he who shows (reproves) your injustice” (compare Moffatt: “who exposes you”) or “anyone who shows how unjust/unfair you are.”

It is not fully clear whether the person who challenges injustice is the same as the one who speaks the whole truth. More likely they are different (judges who speak out against injustice, and witnesses who refuse to lie), but sometimes it will be easier to translate with only one kind of hated person: “he who shows your injustice in speaking the (whole) truth.”

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 .