Amos 2:12

Green's Literal Translation

But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and you commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine. You told the prophets not to prophesy.

New American Standard Bible
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine, And you commanded the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy!'

New Century Version
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine and told the prophets not to prophesy.

New English Translation
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine; you commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy!'

Update Bible Version
But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Don't prophesy.

Webster's Bible Translation
But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Amplified Bible
"But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink [despite their vows] And commanded the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy!'

English Standard Version
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.'

World English Bible
"But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, And commanded the prophets, saying, 'Don't prophesy!'

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And ye birliden wyn to Nayareis, and comaundiden to profetis, and seiden, Profecie ye not.

English Revised Version
But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Berean Standard Bible
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

Contemporary English Version
But you commanded the prophets not to speak their message, and you pressured the Nazirites into drinking wine.

American Standard Version
But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Bible in Basic English
But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer.

Complete Jewish Bible
But you gave the n'zirim wine to drink and ordered the prophets, ‘Don't prophesy!'

Darby Translation
And ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying: 'Prophesy not.'

King James Version (1611)
But ye gaue the Nazarites wine to drinke, and commaunded the Prophets, saying, Prophecie not.

New Living Translation
"But you caused the Nazirites to sin by making them drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, ‘Shut up!'

New Life Bible
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine. And you told the men who speak for Me not to speak.

New Revised Standard
But you made the nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, "You shall not prophesy."

Geneva Bible (1587)
But ye gaue the Nazarites wine to drinke, and commanded the Prophetes, saying, Prophecie not.

George Lamsa Translation
But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets that they should not prophesy.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And yet ye caused the Nazirites to drink wine, - and, on the prophet, laid ye command, saying, Ye shall not prophesy!

Douay-Rheims Bible
And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.

Revised Standard Version
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy.'

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But ye gaue the Nazarites wine to drinke, and commaunded the prophetes, saying, Prophecie not.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But ye gave the consecrated ones wine to drink; and ye commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Good News Translation
But you made the nazirites drink wine, and ordered the prophets not to speak my message.

Christian Standard Bible®
But you made the Nazirites drink wineand commanded the prophets,“Do not prophesy.”

Hebrew Names Version
"But you gave the Nazirim wine to drink, And commanded the prophets, saying, 'Don't prophesy!'

King James Version
But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Lexham English Bible
But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.'

Young's Literal Translation
And ye cause the Nazarites to drink wine, And on the prophets ye have laid a charge, Saying, `Do not prophecy!'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But ye gaue the absteyners wyne to drynke, yee ye comaunded the prophetes, sayenge: Prophecy not.

THE MESSAGE
"But you made the youth-in-training break training, and you told the young prophets, ‘Don't prophesy!' You're too much for me. I'm hard-pressed—to the breaking point. I'm like a wagon piled high and overloaded, creaking and groaning.

New King James Version
"But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, And commanded the prophets saying, "Do not prophesy!'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine, And you commanded the prophets saying, 'You shall not prophesy!'

Legacy Standard Bible
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine,And you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!'

Contextual Overview

⁹ Yet I destroyed the Amorite from before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the great trees. And I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. ¹⁰ Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you in the wilderness forty years, to possess the land of the Amorite. ¹¹ And I raised up from your sons for prophets, and for Nazarites from your young men. Is this not even so, O sons of Israel? declares Jehovah. ¹² But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and you commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy. ¹³ Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart full with produce is pressed. ¹⁴ And refuge shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his power, nor shall the mighty deliver his life, ¹⁵ and he who handles the bow shall not stand, and the swift footed shall not save, and the horse rider shall not save his life. ¹⁶ And the strong one in his heart among the mighty shall run away naked in that day, declares Jehovah.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Numbers 6:2 - to vow Numbers 6:3 - General Isaiah 28:1 - drunkards Isaiah 30:10 - say Jeremiah 11:21 - Prophesy Jeremiah 35:5 - Drink Lamentations 4:7 - Nazarites Ezekiel 25:8 - Seir Hosea 12:13 - General Amos 3:8 - who can Amos 7:12 - go Amos 7:13 - prophesy Micah 2:6 - Prophesy ye Acts 4:17 - let Acts 5:40 - they commanded

Cross-References

Exodus 28:20
And the fourth row: chrysolite, onyx and jasper. They shall be plaited with gold in their settings.

Exodus 39:13
And the fourth row: a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper; these set in their settings, plaited work of gold.

Numbers 11:7
And the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium resin gum.

Job 28:16
It cannot be weighed against the gold of Ophir, against precious onyx, or sapphire;

Ezekiel 28:13
You have been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering; the ruby, the topaz, and the jasper, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of your tambourines and of your flutes in you. In the day you were created, they were prepared.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink,.... Contrary to their vow and calling, and in contempt of it, and to make them like themselves; they either persuaded them, or forced them to it:

and commanded the prophets, saying, prophesy not; hard and heavy things, judgments and denunciations of vengeance, only smooth things; by this authoritative language it appears that this is said of the rulers and governors of the people, as king, princes, and priests; see Amos 7:12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink - Literally, “and,” (this, on their part, was the consequence of what God did for them) “ye caused the Nazarites to drink wine.” God appointed; Israel strove to undo His appointment. God “raised up Nazarites,” as a testimony to them; they sought to make His servants break their vow, in order to rid themselves of that testimony. Their pains to destroy it, is a strong proof of its power. The world is mad against true religion, because it feels itself condemned by it. People set themselves against religion and the religious, the Church or the priesthood, only when and because they feel their power on God’s side against them. What people despise, they do not oppose. “They kill us, they do not despise us,” were true words of a French priest, as to the “reign of reason” in the first French revolution. If the people in power had not respected the Nazarites, or felt that the people respected them, they would not have attempted to corrupt or to force them to break their vow. The word, “cause” them “to drink,” does not express whether they used constraint or seduction. Israel’s consciences supplied it. Yet since they “persecuted the prophets” and put them to death, it seems likely that Amos means that they used violence, either by forcing the wine into their mouths, as the swine-flesh was forced into the mouth of Eleazar (2 Macc. 6:18), and, in the Decian persecution an infant was made to eat of the idol oblation , or by threat of death.

And commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not - God had commanded the prophets to prophesy. Israel issued and laid upon them his commands against the commands of God. The more God reveals His Will, the directer and more determinate the opposition of those who will not yield. God’s perseverance in trying to win them irritates them; they oppose grace, and are angered at not being let alone. This large statement of Amos means much more than the prohibition of Amaziah to himself Amos 7:13. Jeroboam I was prevented only by miracle 1 Kings 13:4 from seizing the prophet who denounced the altar at Bethel. Ahab, during the famine foretold by Elijah, sought him everywhere to destroy him 1 Kings 18:10-12, and Jezebel, after the miracle at Carmel and the death of her prophets, swore by her gods to do so 1 Kings 19:2-3. Ahab’s last act was to imprison Micaiah 1 Kings 22:26-27, the son of Imlath, for prophesying his death, when adjured by himself to speak truly.

Ahaziah, his son, undeterred by the fire from heaven which destroyed two captains, each with his fifty, sent yet a 3d to take Elijah, when he prophesied that the king would not recover from his sickness 2 Kings 1:9-13. Jehoram, his second son, swore by God to destroy Elisha, 2 Kings 6:31, laying the evils of the siege to the prophet, as the Romans did the evils of their decaying empire to the Christian. Micah and Isaiah, a little later, speak of such opposition, in Judah, as habitual Micah 2:6; Isaiah 30:10-11; much more in Israel, where the opposition to God’s law was more fundamental, and where God’s prophet’s had been all but exterminated. Even Asa, in his degenerate days, imprisoned Hanani for prophesying that he would “have wars” 2Ch 16:7, 2 Chronicles 16:10; Joash killed Zechariah son of Jehoiada 2 Chronicles 24:20-21; Amaziah silenced the prophet who rebuked him, “Art thou made of the king’s council? forbear. Why shouldest thou be smitten?” 2 Chronicles 25:15-16.

Jehoiakim sent even into Egypt to fetch Uriah and killed him Jeremiah 26:20-23. Jeremiah’s life was one continuous encounter with false accusations Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 37:13; Jeremiah 38:4, contradictions by false prophets (Jeremiah 23:17 ff; Jeremiah 27:9-10, Jeremiah 27:14-16; Jeremiah 28:0; Jeremiah 29:0), hatred Jeremiah 15:10, mockery Jeremiah 17:15; Jeremiah 20:7-8; Jeremiah 23:33, persecution Jeremiah 17:18, imprisonment Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 32:3; Jeremiah 33:1; Jeremiah 37:15-21; Jeremiah 38:6-13, attempts to destroy him (Jeremiah 11:18-21; Jeremiah 18:18, Jeremiah 18:20-23; Jeremiah 26:8 ff; Jeremiah 36:26). The complaint was, as here, “wherefore dost thou prophesy?” Jeremiah 32:3. What, when our Lord gives it as the characteristic of Jerusalem , that she was “the slayer of the prophets, the stoner of those sent unto her?” They would not have slain the prophets, if they could have silenced them.

People are loath to go to extremities with God; they will make an armistice with Him; their awe of holiness makes them inwardly shrink from laying hands on it. Like the wolf in the fable, they must have a plea against it; and that plea against those who have the truth is obstinacy . If the Christians would have abstained from converting the world, they would not have been persecuted. The Chief-priests at first sought simply to silence the Apostles Acts 4:18, Acts 4:21; then they enforced their command with scourges Acts 5:40; then persecuted them and the Christians to death Acts 7:57-59; Acts 8:1-4; Acts 9:1-2; Acts 12:1-3; Acts 22:4-5. Direct contumacy to God’s known voice and silencing His messenger, is a last stage of obduracy and malice, which leaves God no further avenue to the soul or the people. His means of grace are exhausted when the soul or people not only deaden His voice within, but obstruct it without. One who, through vehemence of his passions, refuses to hear, is within the reach of the grace of God, afterward. He who stifles God’s word to others has mostly hardened his heart deliberately and maliciously in unlove to man, as well as contempt of God. Hence, God speaks, as though this brought the day of grace to a close.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 2:12. But ye gave the Nazarites wine — This was expressly forbidden in the laws of their institution. See Numbers 6:1-3.

Prophesy not. — They would not worship God, and they would not hear the voice of his prophets.