Before them/for your sake. In contrast to what has been done in most modern translations, the Hebrew should be understood as showing the reason for God’s action (like the Good News Translation), not the place (like the Revised Standard Version); (compare Hos 10.15; Gen 6.13; Deut 28.20).

Destroyed. In translation the term must be one which can be used for people. This destruction is that of war: death, loss of home and possessions, exile.

Amorite/Amorites lived in Canaan at the time when the people of Israel conquered it. Where it is helpful, the translation may say “your/ their enemies, the Amorites.”

Whose height was like the height of the cedars, and who was as strong as the oaks/men who were as tall as cedar trees and as strong as oaks. Such full comparisons are usually not hard to translate except for the terms cedar trees and oaks.

In either case, where the specific kind of Biblical tree is not known, the best solution is probably to take a general word for “tree” (provided it includes the possibility of tall trees and strong trees), and to build the comparison around it. Something like “as tall as the tallest trees, and strong as the greatest trees” might do. Or the two comparisons can be combined: “as tall, as strong as the greatest tree.”

A second possible solution would be to borrow the words cedar and oak and write them according to the sound patterns of the language of the translation: “tall as the tree called cedar,” etc. Still a third possibility is to take local trees which are tall and strong. Such a solution would not be as good if this were a particular tree of historical importance, but as a basis for comparison like this, it is a possibility. Still another possibility is to say something like “strong as big trees like the mahogany tree.” Or yet again, some of the information could be put in a footnote so that the kind of tree could be better understood without including inaccurate information in the text.

I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. This picture is not kept in the Good News Translation but included in the earlier use of totally destroyed because this was a standard Canaanite and Hebrew idiom, and the meaning of the expression as a whole should be translated and not the meanings of the individual words. If the Hebrew idiom can be replaced by an equivalent idiom in your language, it should be done. In English we could say: “I destroyed them root and branch” (Robinson, The Translator’s Old Testament); in German: “ich rotte sie mit Stumpf und Stiel aus,” etc. If it is not possible to find an equivalent idiom, the meaning of the total expression should be translated in a general way, as TEV has done.

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 .