Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them/If they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them and catch them. The top of Carmel was an ideal hiding place because of thick forests and more than two thousand limestone caves. Such information should, however, not be stated in the translation. The important thing is the balance of up with down. Normally it is important to indicate that Carmel is a “mountain” or “hill.”

Good News Translation stops using even after verse 2, but in some languages it may be better to use an equivalent expression in verses 3 and 4 also, in order to emphasize the impossibility of escape.

And though they hide from my sight (Hebrew: my eyes) at the bottom of the sea/If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea. “My eyes,” of course, is a picture of God searching, and when understood as such can be kept in the translation (Smith-Goodspeed; compare Revised Standard Version, The Translator’s Old Testament: my sight; New American Bible: “my gaze”). In other cases it may be more natural to say from me (so also Moffatt, New English Bible). Sometimes it would be possible not to state directly what they are hiding from because it is clear from the context.

It is not always easy to translate at the bottom of the sea. In cultures where the sea is not known, it may be necessary to say “on the earth, after having gone into the water” or “… under the deep water” or “… deep in the water.”

There I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them/I will command the sea monster to bite them. This is the only case in this paragraph where the picture is of the LORD using something else to accomplish what he wants to do. However, it is not fully clear what the meaning is. The English translations indicate the range of possibilities: serpent (also Smith-Goodspeed, New American Bible), “Serpent” (with capital S: The Translator’s Old Testament), “Dragon” (Moffatt), or sea monster. Since poisonous sea-serpents did not live in the Mediterranean, most scholars think that this is the sea monster, called Rahab (Isa 51.9; Psa 89.10; Job 9.13; 26.12) and Leviathan (Isa 27.1; Psa 74.14). On the other hand, except for Isa 27.1, these passages do not have the Hebrew word nachash which is used here, whereas this word and the word for bite are both used in Amos 5.19: bitten by a snake. The translator will have to make his translation on the basis of what makes sense in his language. If it is possible to speak of a sea monster, it may still be necessary to add a cultural note such as is given in Good News Translation: “It was believed that the sea was inhabited by a great monster. This creature, like all others, was regarded as under God’s control.” In some languages there may be some fearful creature in the sea, and it may be possible to use that here. Often, however, it is necessary to use the general term for “snake.”

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 .