Amos 7:14

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

Then answered Amos, and said unto Amaziah, No prophet, was I, - nor the son of a prophet, was I, - but, a herdman, was I, and a preparer of sycamore fruit;

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am not a professional prophet, and I am not from a prophet's family. I raise cattle and take care of sycamore trees.

New American Standard Bible
Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.

New Century Version
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I do not make my living as a prophet, nor am I a member of a group of prophets. I make my living as a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore trees.

New English Translation
Amos replied to Amaziah, "I was not a prophet by profession. No, I was a herdsman who also took care of sycamore fig trees.

Update Bible Version
Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees:

Webster's Bible Translation
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet's son; but I [was] a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:

Amplified Bible
Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet [by profession], nor am I a prophet's son; I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.

English Standard Version
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.

World English Bible
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore trees;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Amos answeride, and seide to Amasie, Y am not a profete, and Y am not sone of profete; but an herde of neet Y am, drawyng vp sicomoris.

English Revised Version
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a dresser of sycomore trees:

Berean Standard Bible
"I was not a prophet," Amos replied, "nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

Contemporary English Version
I answered: I'm not a prophet! And I wasn't trained to be a prophet. I am a shepherd, and I take care of fig trees.

American Standard Version
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore-trees:

Bible in Basic English
Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees:

Complete Jewish Bible
‘Amos gave this answer to Amatzyah: "I am not trained as a prophet, and I'm not one of the guild prophets — I own sheep and grow figs.

Darby Translation
And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah: 'I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees;

King James Version (1611)
Then answered Amos, and sayde to Amaziah; I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets sonne, but I was an heardman, and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit.

New Living Translation
But Amos replied, "I'm not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I'm just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees.

New Life Bible
Amos answered Amaziah, saying, "I am not a man who tells what is going to happen in the future, or the son of such a man. I take care of sheep and cattle, and grow fig trees.

New Revised Standard
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees,

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then answered Amos, & said to Amaziah, I was no Prophet, neither was I a prophets sonne, but I was an herdman, & a gatherer of wilde figs.

George Lamsa Translation
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, neither a prophets son; but I was a shepherd and a gatherer of wild figs;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs.

Revised Standard Version
Then Amos answered Amazi'ah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then aunswered Amos, and sayde to Amazia, I was no prophete, neither was I a prophetes sonne: but I was an heardeman, and a gatherer of wilde figges.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Amos answered, and said to Amasias, I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruits.

Good News Translation
Amos answered, "I am not the kind of prophet who prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees.

Christian Standard Bible®
So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs.

Hebrew Names Version
Then `Amos answered Amatzyah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore trees;

King James Version
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:

Lexham English Bible
And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet and I am not a son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman and I am one taking care of sycamore trees.

Literal Translation
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was not a prophet, nor was I a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore trees.

Young's Literal Translation
And Amos answereth and saith unto Amaziah, `I [am] no prophet, nor a prophet's son [am] I, but a herdsman I [am], and a cultivator of sycamores,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Amos answered, and sayde to Amasias: As for me, I am nether prophet, ner prophetes sonne: but a keper of catell. Now as I was breakynge downe molberies, and goynge after the catell,

THE MESSAGE
But Amos stood up to Amaziah: "I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, ‘Go preach to my people Israel.'

New King James Version
Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I was no prophet,Nor was I a son of a prophet,But I was a sheepbreeder 2 Kings 3:4 ">[fn] And a tender of sycamore fruit.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ Then sent Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, unto Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: A conspiracy hath Amos, raised against thee, in the midst of the house of Israel, The land, is not able to endure, all his words; ¹¹ For, thus, saith Amos, By the sword, shall Jeroboam, die, - and, Israel, shall, surely be exiled, from off his own soil. ¹² Then said Amaziah unto Amos, O seer, go flee thee away unto the land o Judah - and eat, there, bread, and, there, mayest thou prophesy; ¹³ But, at Bethel, not again, any more, mayest thou prophesy, - for, the holy place of the king, it is, and, the house of the kingdom, it is. ¹⁴ Then answered Amos, and said unto Amaziah, No prophet, was I, - nor the son of a prophet, was I, - but, a herdman, was I, and a preparer of sycamore fruit; ¹⁵ But Yahweh, took me away, from following the flock, - and Yahweh, said unto me, Go prophesy against my people Israel. ¹⁶ Now, therefore, hear thou the word of Yahweh, - Thou art saying, Thou must not prophesy concerning Israel, nor let thy word drop down upon the house of Isaac. ¹⁷ Therefore - Thus, saith Yahweh, Thy wife, in the city, will commit unchastity, and, thy sons and thy daughters, by the sword, shall fall, and, thine own soil, by line, shall he apportioned, - and, thou, on a polluted soil, shalt die, and, Israel, shall, surely go into exile, away front his own soil.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

neither: 1 Kings 20:35, 2 Kings 2:3, 2 Kings 2:5, 2 Kings 2:7, 2 Kings 4:38, 2 Kings 6:1, 2 Chronicles 16:7, 2 Chronicles 19:2, 2 Chronicles 20:34

an herdman: Amos 1:1, Zechariah 13:5, 1 Corinthians 1:27

a gatherer: Rather, as bolais is rendered by the LXX and Vulgate, ךםיזשם, vellicans "a scraping," or a scraper of sycamores; for the fruit does not ripen till it is rubbed with iron combs.

sycamore fruit: or, wild figs

Reciprocal: Genesis 47:3 - What is Exodus 3:1 - kept 1 Samuel 16:19 - with the sheep 1 Kings 19:19 - he with 1 Chronicles 17:7 - I took thee 2 Chronicles 1:15 - sycamore trees 2 Chronicles 9:27 - the sycamore Job 30:4 - for their meat Psalms 78:70 - and took Psalms 131:1 - neither Proverbs 30:3 - neither Jeremiah 17:16 - I have Hosea 12:10 - have also Matthew 4:18 - for Luke 19:4 - a sycamore John 7:15 - letters 1 Peter 3:15 - and be

Cross-References

Genesis 7:2
Of all the clean beasts, shalt thou take to thee by sevens, a male and his female, - and, of the beasts that are not clean,, shall be two a male and his female.

Genesis 7:3
Also of the bird of the heavens, by sevens, male and female, - to keep alive a seed on the face of all the earth.

Genesis 7:8
Of the beasts that were clean, and of the beasts that were not clean, - and of the birds, and everything that creepeth on the ground,

Genesis 7:9
two and two, went they in unto Noah, into the ark male and female,, - as God commanded Noah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah,.... With much freedom, boldness, and intrepidity, and yet with modesty and humility; not at all moved by his frowns or his flattery:

I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet's son: he was not a prophet originally, or from his youth, as Kimchi; he was not born and bred one; neither his father was a prophet, by whom he could get any instructions in the mystery of prophesying; nor was he a disciple of any of the prophets, or brought up in any of their schools as some were; he was no prophet till the Lord called him immediately, at once, from his secular employment to this office; and therefore did not take it up to get a livelihood by Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, that he was not one of the false prophets that prophesied for hire, and took a reward:

but I [was] an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit; that is, originally: this was the employment he was brought up in from his youth, and was in it when he was called to be a prophet; he looked after cattle, both great and small; and at a certain time of the year used, to gather sycamore fruit, which was a kind of figs; and by, its name had the resemblance both of figs and mulberries. Some take it to be what were called Egyptian figs; these he gathered, either for the use of his masters, or for food for himself, or for the cattle, or both: or he was an "opener" of them, as the Septuagint; he cut, them, and made incisions in them; for, as Pliny l, Dioscorides m, and Theophrastus n observe, this fruit must be cut or scratched, either with the nail, or with iron, or it will not ripen; but, four days after being scratched or cut, will become ripe. Mr. Norden o, a late traveller in Egypt, has given us a very particular account of this tree and its fruit.

"This sycamore (he says) is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs in form of grape stalks; at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like bunches of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons: for I have seen (says he) some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgusting sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people for the greater part live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher filled with water from the Nile.''

This account in several things agrees with what Pliny p and Solinus q relate of this tree and its fruit; very likely there might be many of these trees in Judea; there seem to have been great numbers of them in Solomon's time, 1 Kings 10:27; and perhaps it was one of these that Zacchaeus climbed, in order to see Christ, Luke 19:4; for this sort of trees delight in vales and plains, such as were the plains of Jericho; and in the Talmud r we read of sycamore trees in Jericho; and of the men of Jericho allowing the branches of them to be cut down for sacred uses. These also grew in lower Galilee, but not in upper Galilee; and that they were frequent in the land of Israel appears from the rules the Misnic doctors s give about the planting, and cutting them down; and in the opening of these trees, and making incisions in them, and in gathering the fruit of them, Amos might be concerned. Kimchi and Ben Melech say the word signifies to "mix", and that his business was to mix these together with other fruit. Aben Ezra observes, that in the Arabic language it signifies to dry; and then his work was, after he had gathered them, to lay them a drying. Some render the word a "searcher" t of them; as if his employment was to look out for them, and seek them where they were to be got: however, be this as it will, the prophet suggests that he had been used to a low life, and to mean fare, with which he was contented, and did not take up this business of prophesying for bread, and could return to his former employment without any regret, to get a maintenance, if so was the will of God. The Targum gives it a different sense,

"for I am a master of cattle, and have sycamores in the fields;''

and so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, represent him as suggesting that he was rich, and had no need of bread to be given him, or to prophesy for that.

l Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 7. m L. 1. c. 143. n Hist. l. 4. c. 2. o Travels in Egypt and Nubis, vol. 1. p. 79, 80. p Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 7. q Polyhistor. c. 45. r T. Bab Pesachim, fol. 56. 1. 57. 1. & Menachot, fol. 71. 1. s Misn. Shevath, c. 9. sect. 2. & Bava Bathra, c. 2. sect. 7. t בזלס "disquirens", Montanus, Vatablus "perquirens", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Burkius. So R. Sol. Urbin Ohel Moed, fol. 31. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I was no prophet - The order of the words is emphatic. “No prophet I, and no prophet’s son I, for a herdsman I, and dresser of sycamores.” It may be, Amos would meet, for the people’s sake, Amaziah’s taunt. He had a living, simple indeed, yet that of the prophets was as simple. But chiefly he tells them of the unusual character of his mission. He did not belong to the order of the prophets, nor had he been educated in the schools of the prophets, nor had he any human training. He was thinking of nothing less; he was doing the works of his calling, until “God took him from following the flock,” and gave him his commission. Rup.: “He promises humbly what he had been, what he had been made, not by merits, but by grace, that he had not assumed the prophetic office by hereditary right, nor had he begun to prophesy out of his own mind, but, being under the necessity of obeying, he had fulfilled the grace and the command of God who inspired and sent Him.” Twice he repeats, “The Lord took me; the Lord said unto me;” inculcating that, what Amaziah forbade, God bade. All was of God. “He” had but obeyed. Jerome: “As then the Apostles, when the Scribes and Pharisees forbade them to teach in the Name of Jesus, answered, ‘We must obey God rather than man’ Acts 5:29, so Amos, when forbidden by the idol-priests to prophesy, not only prophesies, shewing that he feared God bidding, more than their forbidding, but he boldly and freely denounces the punishment of him who endeavored to forbid and hinder the word of God.” Rup.: “heaven thundered and commanded him to prophesy; the frog croaked in answer out of his marsh, ‘prophesy no more. ‘“

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 7:14. I was no prophet — I am an extraordinary messenger of God. I am not called to the prophetic office but for this occasion. I have no message to Judah, and therefore need not go there. I have a message to Israel alone, and I must faithfully deliver it.

For the account which Amos gives here of himself, see the introduction. Amos 1:1.