Amos 2:13

13 Lo! I shall creak under you, as a wain charged with hay creaketh. (Lo! I shall creak under you, like a wagon, loaded with hay, creaketh.)

Amos 2:13 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 2:13

Behold, I are pressed under you
With the weight of their sins, with which they had made him to serve, and had wearied him; his patience was quite wore out, he could bear them no longer: as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves;
as a cart in harvest time, in which the sheaves of corn are carried home; when one sheaf is laid upon another, till they can lay no more, and the cart is loaded and overloaded with them, and ready to break, or be pressed into the earth with them: thus. Jehovah represents himself as loaded and burdened with the sins of these people, and therefore would visit for them, and inflict deserved punishment. Some render it actively, "behold, I press" F26, or "am about to press your place, as a cart full of sheaves presseth" F1; the horse or horses which draw it, especially the last; or the ground it goes upon; or as a cart stuck with iron spikes, and loaded with stones, being drawn over a corn floor, presses the full sheaves, and beats out the grain, which was their way of pressing it: so the Lord signifies he would afflict and distress this people, bring them into strait circumstances, by a close siege, and other judgments, which should ruin and destroy them; and which was first begun by Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and finished by Shalmaneser, who carried away the ten tribes captive. So the Targum,

``behold, I bring distress upon you, and it shall straiten you in your place, as a cart is straitened which is loaded with sheaves.''

FOOTNOTES:

F26 (qyem) "angustabo", Vatablus; "coarctans", Montanus; "arcto", Mercerus; "premo, coarctabo, angustiis afficiam", Drusius; "pressurus sum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius; "arctaturus sum", Liveleus.
F1 (qyet) "coarctares", Montanus; "premit", Junius & Tremellius; Piscator, Tarnovius.

Amos 2:13 In-Context

11 And I raised of your sons into prophets, and (into) Nazarites of your young men. Whether it is not so, ye sons of Israel? saith the Lord. (And I raised up prophets from among your sons, and Nazarites from out of your young men. Is that not so, ye Israelites? saith the Lord.)
12 And ye poured out wine to (the) Nazarites, and commanded to (the) prophets, and said, Prophesy ye not.
13 Lo! I shall creak under you, as a wain charged with hay creaketh. (Lo! I shall creak under you, like a wagon, loaded with hay, creaketh.)
14 And flight shall perish from a swift man, and a strong man shall not hold his strength, and a stalworthy man shall not save his life; (And the swift shall not be able to escape, and a strong man shall not be able to hold onto his own strength, and a stalwart man, or a warrior, shall not be able to save his own life;)
15 and he that holdeth a bow shall not stand, and a swift man shall not be saved by his feet; and the rider of an horse shall not save his life, (and he who holdeth a bow shall not stand, and the swift shall not be saved by their own feet; and the rider of an horse shall not be able to save his own life,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.