Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Amos
| # | Term (EN) | Original (Hebrew, translit.) | Arabic Rendering | Risk | Baseline Status | Chapter(s) | Notes / Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | the LORD (YHWH) | יְהוָה, YHWH | الرب | Critical | [baseline reuse] — same Arabic word as lord (κύριος) in Romans TM | All | Same Arabic word bridges the OT divine name and NT confession of Christ’s lordship; theologically rich but requires explanation that Amos’s “the LORD” is YHWH the covenant God, the same referent the NT identifies with Jesus. |
| 2 | God | אֱלֹהִים, Elohim | الله | Critical | [baseline reuse] | All | Identical rationale to baseline god entry. |
| 3 | roar | שָׁאַג, sha’ag | يزأر | Low | New | 1, 3 | Lion-roar judgment imagery; no collision. |
| 4 | transgression(s) / rebellion | פֶּשַׁע, pesha | معاصٍ / تعدّيات | High | New — distinct from sin (الخطية) | 1, 2 | Willful, treasonous covenant-breach, applied to Gentile nations without Torah as well as Israel/Judah; must not collapse into the milder “missing the mark” sense of الخطية; reinforces universal accountability doctrine. |
| 5 | fire (judgment) | אֵשׁ, esh | النار | Low | New | 1, 2, 7 | Historical judgment imagery here, not primarily afterlife punishment; note to avoid over-eschatologizing every occurrence. |
| 6 | law / instruction (Torah) | תּוֹרָה, torah | الناموس | Critical | [baseline reuse] — same as law (νόμος) | 2 | Never الشريعة; same rationale as baseline. |
| 7 | Nazirite | נָזִיר, nazir | الناذر / المكرَّس لله | High | New | 2 | Avoid النذير (“the Warner,” a defining Qur’anic prophetic title) despite genuine cognate root. |
| 8 | the needy / the poor / the afflicted | אֶבְיוֹן / דַּל / עָנִי, evyon / dal / ani | الفقراء / المساكين / المظلومون | High | New | 2, 4, 5, 8 | Positive overlap with Qur’anic zakāt-recipient categories (9:60); risk of domesticating Amos’s structural, systemic charge into generic almsgiving sentiment. Core “Social Justice” vocabulary. |
| 9 | covenant of brotherhood | בְּרִית אַחִים, brit achim | عهد الإخوة | Medium | Builds on [baseline reuse] العهد | 1 | |
| 10 | know (elect/covenantal sense) | יָדַע, yada | عرفتُ (gloss: اخترتُ) | Critical | Connects to [baseline reuse] election (اختيار الله) | 3 | Must not flatten into generic divine omniscience (‘ilm); this is exclusive covenant choice paired with intensified accountability. |
| 11 | secret / counsel | סוֹד, sod | سرّه | Medium | New | 3 | Avoid Sufi esoteric-knowledge (asrār) connotation; this is ordinary covenantal prophetic revelation. |
| 12 | tithe | מַעֲשֵׂר, ma’aser | العُشور | Low-Medium | New | 4 | Positive parallel to Islamic fiqh ‘ushr; watch for ritual-performance-equals-favor domestication. |
| 13 | return / repent | שׁוּב, shuv | يرجع / يتوب | High | New — related to but distinct from Islamic tawbah | 4 | Not an independent, self-sufficient means of earning restoration; a covenant-appropriate response to God’s discipline. |
| 14 | prepare to meet your God | לִקְרַאת אֱלֹהֶיךָ, liqrat Eloheikha | استعدّ للقاء إلهك | Medium | New | 4 | Confrontational, not the positive devotional “meeting God” sense found in some Islamic piety. |
| 15 | LORD of hosts | יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, YHWH Tsevaot | رب الجنود | Medium | Builds on [baseline reuse] الرب | 4, 5, 9 | Cosmic sovereignty over heavenly armies; avoid nationalist/militarized misreading. |
| 16 | lament / dirge | קִינָה, qinah | مرثاة | Low | New | 5 | Genre marker; mirrored/reversed at 9:11. |
| 17 | seek [the LORD] | דָּרַשׁ, darash | اطلبوا / التمسوا | Medium | New | 5 | Contrasted with seeking shrine-sites (Bethel, Gilgal); positive counterpart to ritual-without-justice critique. |
| 18 | the gate (court/judicial site) | שַׁעַר, sha’ar | باب المدينة | Low-Medium | New | 5 | Requires historical-cultural gloss (“مكان القضاء”). |
| 19 | bribe | שֹׁחַד, shochad | الرشوة | Low | New | 5 | Shared moral ground with Islamic legal ethics. |
| 20 | wormwood (perverted justice) | לַעֲנָה, la’anah | العلقم / الأفسنتين | Low | New | 5 | Figurative; low collision. |
| 21 | Woe | הוֹי, hoy | الويل | Medium | New | 5 | Prophetic funeral-cry opening judgment oracle; retain dirge force. |
| 22 | the Day of the LORD | יוֹם יְהוָה, yom YHWH | يوم الرب | CRITICAL | New — core curriculum doctrine | 5 (core), 8 (echo), throughout | Not the standard Islamic yawm al-qiyāmah / yawm al-dīn vocabulary, but will be read through that lattice regardless; requires explicit “already/not yet,” near-and-far-horizon, and covenant-particularity scaffolding at every occurrence. |
| 23 | darkness / not light | חֹשֶׁךְ / אוֹר, choshek / or | ظلام / نور | Medium | New | 5 | Keep situational (calamity vs. safety), not the Qur’anic guidance-vs-ignorance epistemological frame. |
| 24 | I hate, I despise (ritual rejection) | שָׂנֵאתִי מָאַסְתִּי, sane’ti … ma’asti | أُبغِض … أرفض | High | New — anchors “Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual” | 5 (core) | Retain both verbs at full force; genuine apologetic bridge via Qur’an 107’s own ritual-without-mercy critique. |
| 25 | feasts / solemn assemblies | חַגִּים / עֲצָרוֹת, chagim / atzarot | أعيادكم / محافلكم المقدسة | Medium | New | 5 (core) | Chag shares root with ḥajj; legitimate resonance, but Amos condemns ritual detached from justice, not ritual as such. |
| 26 | burnt offering / grain offering / peace offering | עֹלָה / מִנְחָה / שְׁלָמִים | المحرقات / التقدمة / ذبائح السلامة | Medium-High | New — shelamim shares root with [baseline reuse] السلام | 5 (core) | Distinguish OT cultic peace-offering from NT “peace with God” (baseline peace_with_god doctrine), which fulfills rather than is contradicted by this text. |
| 27 | fattened animals | מְרִיאִים, meri’im | العجول المسمَّنة | Low | New | 5 (core) | |
| 28 | noise of songs / melody of harps | הָמוֹן שִׁרֶיךָ / זִמְרַת נְבָלֶיךָ | ضجيج أغانيكم / أنغام قيثاراتكم | Low | New | 5 (core) | Worship music reclassified as unwanted noise when divorced from justice; music itself not condemned. |
| 29 | justice | מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat | العدل | HIGH | New — core curriculum doctrine | 5 (core), 5:7,10,12,15 | Al-ʻAdl is a name of Allah — strong positive bridge, but risk of narrowing to formal legal fairness; must be anchored to concrete protection of the poor/vulnerable. |
| 30 | righteousness | צְדָקָה, tsedaqah | البر | CRITICAL | [baseline reuse] — same Arabic word as righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) | 5 (core) | ADDED CONTEXTUAL NOTE required: Amos’s usage foregrounds the ethical-social dimension (habitual just conduct toward the vulnerable) as the fruit of right relationship with God, complementary to — not contradicting — the Romans forensic/imputed sense. |
| 31 | ever-flowing stream | נַחַל אֵיתָן, nachal eitan | نهر دائم الجريان | Low | New | 5 (core) | High-resonance, low-risk image for arid-region readers (contrast with seasonal wadis). |
| 32 | those at ease / complacent | שַׁאֲנַנִּים / בֹּטְחִים, sha’anan / batach | الغافلون | Medium | New | 6 | Prefer الغافلون over المطمئنون (avoid positive Qur’anic “al-nafs al-muṭma’innah” resonance). |
| 33 | ruin / collapse (of Joseph) | שֶׁבֶר, shever | انهيار | Low | New | 6 | |
| 34 | plumb line | אֲנָךְ, anakh | خيط الشاقول | HIGH | New | 7 | Never render with ميزان (scale) — reserve that word’s absence here to avoid collision with the Islamic eschatological Mīzān; this is a builder’s plumb line, an external unchanging moral standard, not a deeds-weighing scale. |
| 35 | relent (God) | נִחַם, nicham | فرقّ الرب / فندم الرب | High | New | 7 | Anthropopathic; genuine relational responsiveness to intercession, not divine error or change of eternal character/decree. Partial bridge: Islamic qaḍā’ mu’allaq (conditional decree responsive to du’ā’). |
| 36 | seer (contrasted with prophet) | חֹזֶה, chozeh | رائٍ / الناظر | Medium | New — contrasted with [baseline reuse] نبي | 7 | Dismissive court-title vs. the full prophetic office; ties to baseline calling/called doctrine (unsought divine summons). |
| 37 | the king’s sanctuary | מִקְדַּשׁ־מֶלֶךְ | مقدس الملك | Low-Medium | New | 7 | State co-optation of worship; background for empty-ritual doctrine. |
| 38 | locusts | אַרְבֶּה, arbeh | الجراد | Low | New | 7 | |
| 39 | summer fruit / the end (wordplay) | קַיִץ / קֵץ, qayits / qets | ثمر الصيف / النهاية | Medium | New | 8 | Untranslatable pun; requires explicit translator’s note per baseline [TRANSLATOR NOTE...] convention. |
| 40 | false balances / fraudulent scales | מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה, moznei mirmah | موازين الغش | HIGH | New | 8 | Direct root-cognate of Islamic eschatological Mīzān (deeds-scale); never leave “ميزان” unqualified — always pair with الغش. |
| 41 | famine of hearing the word of the LORD | רָעָב לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה | مجاعة لسماع كلام الرب | High | New | 8 | Cross-reference baseline gospel doctrine’s tahrif caution; a judicial withdrawal of prophetic access, not a statement about textual corruption of Scripture. |
| 42 | Cushites (proper noun) / sovereignty over all nations | כּוּשִׁים, Kushiim | الكوشيون | High (doctrinal context) / Low (proper noun) | New | 9 | Must be taught alongside 3:2’s election language, not in isolation. |
| 43 | the fallen tent/booth of David | סֻכַּת דָּוִיד הַנֹּפֶלֶת, sukkat David | خيمة داود الساقطة | CRITICAL | Builds on [baseline reuse] داود, davidic_covenant, seed_of_david | 9 | Central messianic-restoration text; quoted in Acts 15:16-17 to justify Gentile inclusion; deliberate literary reversal of 5:2. |
| 44 | raise up (restore) | הֵקִים, heqim | أُقيم | Medium-High | New — root resonance with [baseline reuse] القيامة | 9 | Not a doctrinal equivalence to resurrection, but a fruitful pedagogical connection (God’s pattern of raising up the fallen). |
| 45 | remnant | שְׁאֵרִית, she’erit | البقية الباقية | Medium-High | New — connects to Romans 11:5 remnant theology (implicit in baseline election) | 9 | |
| 46 | called by my name (Gentile inclusion) | נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עֲלֵיהֶם | دُعي اسمي عليهم | CRITICAL | Builds on [baseline reuse] المدعوون / الدعوة, unity_of_jews_and_gentiles | 9 | OT root of Gentile-inclusion doctrine, historically deep answer to claims of Pauline innovation. |
| 47 | restore the fortunes / never again uprooted | שׁוּב שְׁבוּת / נָתַשׁ | أرد سبي شعبي / لن يُقتَلعوا | High | Builds on [baseline reuse] إسرائيل | 9 | Inherits baseline’s political-sensitivity caution regarding contemporary “Isrā’īl”; frame as redemptive-historical/messianic, not a contemporary geopolitical claim. |
| 48 | nations (Gentile/political sense) | גּוֹיִם | الأمم | Medium | [baseline reuse] — same Arabic word as gentiles (ἔθνη) | 1-2, 9 | Here denotes geopolitical nation-states generally (including Israel/Judah under judgment), a broader sense than the NT ecclesiological “Gentiles” but the same Arabic word applies without collision. |
Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (Amos Curriculum Doctrines)
| Curriculum Doctrine | Primary Terms | Primary Passages |
|---|---|---|
| Social Justice and Care for the Poor | #8 (poor/needy), #29 (justice), #30 (righteousness), #18 (the gate), #19 (bribe), #40 (false balances) | 2:6-7; 5:7-15, 5:24; 8:4-6 |
| Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual | #24 (I hate/despise), #25 (feasts/assemblies), #26 (offerings), #28 (songs/harps), #12 (tithe) | 4:4-5; 5:21-24 (core) |
| God’s Sovereignty over All Nations | #4 (transgressions, applied to all nations), #15 (LORD of hosts), #42 (Cushites/9:7), #10 (know/elect, paired with 9:7) | 1:3-2:16; 9:7 |
| The Day of the Lord as Judgment | #22 (Day of the LORD), #23 (darkness/light), #14 (prepare to meet your God) | 5:18-20 (core); 8:9-10 |
| The Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent (Messianic Hope) | #43 (fallen tent of David), #44 (raise up), #45 (remnant), #46 (called by my name), #47 (restore the fortunes) | 9:11-15 |
Critical Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: الرب
Transliteration: al-Rabb
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: السيد, المولى
[Inherited from Romans package] al-Rabb is a defining title of Allah (Rabb al-‘Alamin); applying it to Jesus in Romans 10:9 is the exact claim of full deity that must be preserved. Amos extension: this same Arabic word renders YHWH throughout Amos (the LORD who roars from Zion, 1:2; whose Day is coming, 5:18). Teaching must make explicit that Amos’s covenant-God ‘the LORD’ is the same divine person the NT identifies with Jesus (Romans 10:9) — the continuity, not just the vocabulary, must be taught across the two curricula.
God
Approved rendering: الله
Transliteration: Allāh
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
[Inherited from Romans package] No viable alternative to الله exists; risk is entirely in content (strict Islamic tawhid vs. the Triune identity this word denotes across the whole Bible), not vocabulary. Amos extension: the same word renders Elohim throughout Amos as Creator and sovereign Judge of all nations (4:13; 9:5-6).
Law
Approved rendering: الناموس
Transliteration: al-nāmūs
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: الشريعة, الشرع
[Inherited from Romans package] Never substitute الشريعة, which today denotes the total Islamic religious-legal-political system. Amos extension: renders torah in 2:4 (‘they have rejected the law of the LORD’), Judah’s specific charge; using الشريعة here would turn Judah’s covenant unfaithfulness into an apparent attack on Islamic law generally.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: البر
Transliteration: al-birr
Doctrine: Salvation / Social Justice and Care for the Poor
Rejected alternatives: الصلاح, العدل (as a full substitute)
[Inherited from Romans package] Locked to the forensic, apart-from-works sense in Romans, guarding against the Qur’anic al-birr (2:177) works-checklist collision. AMOS-SPECIFIC ADDED CONTEXTUAL NOTE (required at every Amos 5:24 occurrence): tsedaqah’s dominant force in Amos is ethical-social — habitual, other-regarding just conduct toward the vulnerable, paired with mishpat and flowing ‘like an ever-flowing stream.’ This is the fruit of right relationship with God, complementary to (not contradicting) the Romans forensic/imputed sense, which is the root. Teaching material must state this root/fruit relationship explicitly so learners do not conclude Amos contradicts Romans or that البر has quietly reverted to the rejected works-checklist sense.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: القيامة
Transliteration: al-qiyāmah
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
[Inherited from Romans package] Must never be conflated with reincarnation; requires apologetic scaffolding regarding the historical crucifixion Islam denies. Amos extension: root-referenced (ق-و-م) at 9:11’s ‘I will raise up’ (أُقيم) the fallen tent of David. This is a fruitful PEDAGOGICAL CONNECTION (God’s pattern of raising up the fallen throughout redemptive history, climaxing in Christ’s resurrection), NOT a doctrinal equivalence — state this distinction explicitly every time the connection is drawn; never claim heqim and qiyamah name the same event or category.
Know Elect
Approved rendering: عرفتُ (بمعنى: اخترتُ)
Transliteration: ‘araftu (bi-ma’nā: ikhtartu)
Doctrine: Divine Election and Covenant Responsibility
Rejected alternatives: علم الله (mere cognitive knowledge/‘ilm)
Original: יָדַע
Category: God
‘You only have I known’ (3:2, yada). Islamic theology affirms Allah’s comprehensive, indiscriminate ‘ilm of all creatures equally; a flat rendering as bare cognitive awareness erases the exclusive, elective, covenantal force of yada and collapses Amos’s paradox that election intensifies rather than removes accountability. Must connect explicitly to the baseline’s اختيار الله and be taught together with ‘therefore I will punish you’ and with 9:7’s impartial sovereignty, never in isolation.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: يوم الرب
Transliteration: yawm al-Rabb
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment
Rejected alternatives: يوم القيامة, يوم الدين, يوم الحساب
Original: יוֹם יְהוָה
Category: Eschatology
Amos 5:18-20 (core passage), echoed 8:9-10. Not the standard Islamic eschatological vocabulary listed above, but will inevitably be read through that same lattice — a single, monolithic, universal deeds-weighed Judgment Day. TWO CORRECTIONS REQUIRED AT EVERY OCCURRENCE: (a) this has both near-historical (Assyrian conquest) and far/final eschatological horizons, already/not-yet, not one monolithic event; (b) this is YHWH’s specific reckoning with His own covenant people first, reversing Israel’s assumption of automatic vindication, not a generic universal event detached from covenant relationship.
Fallen Tent Of David
Approved rendering: خيمة داود الساقطة
Transliteration: khaymat Dāwūd al-sāqiṭah
Doctrine: The Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent (Messianic Hope)
Original: סֻכַּת דָּוִיד הַנֹּפֶלֶת
Category: Messianic Hope
The collapsed Davidic monarchy, which God promises to raise up, repair, and rebuild (9:11) — this curriculum’s central messianic-hope text, quoted in Acts 15:16-17 to justify Gentile inclusion. Reuses the baseline’s داود exactly. Deliberate literary reversal of 5:1-2 (Israel ‘fallen, no more to rise’): here God promises to reverse that very fall. Must be taught as fulfilled in Christ’s eternal Davidic kingship, not a bare political restoration.
Called By My Name
Approved rendering: دُعي اسمي عليهم
Transliteration: du’iya ismī ‘alayhim
Doctrine: Gentile Inclusion and Unity of the Peoples
Original: נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עֲלֵיהֶם
Category: Messianic Hope
A Hebrew idiom of ownership/belonging, extended in 9:12 to Gentile nations incorporated into the restored tent of David — the direct OT root of Gentile inclusion, cited at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:16-17, following the LXX reading). Must draw directly on the baseline’s المدعوون/الدعوة, reinforcing that this is the same sovereign divine summons documented throughout Romans, present already in the eighth-century B.C. — a historically deep answer to any claim that Gentile inclusion was a late Pauline innovation.
High Risk Terms
Israel
Approved rendering: إسرائيل
Transliteration: Isrā’īl
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles / Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent
[Inherited from Romans package] Contemporary spoken Arabic overwhelmingly associates Isra’il with the modern nation-state and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Amos extension: this caution applies across the whole book (2:6-16; 3:2; 9:8-10) and with maximal deliberateness at 9:14-15’s unshakeable land-restoration promise, which must be framed as a redemptive-historical, messianic-kingdom promise, never as commentary on the present conflict.
Called
Approved rendering: المدعوون
Transliteration: al-mad’uwwūn
Doctrine: Divine Calling / Prophetic Calling and Authority
Rejected alternatives: المُنتخَبون
[Inherited from Romans package] Context-sensitive across apostleship/sainthood/salvation senses in Romans. Amos extension: applies to Amos’s own unsought prophetic commissioning (7:14-15) and to 9:12’s Gentile nations ‘called by my name’ — both reinforce the baseline’s core distinction that this is God’s sovereign summons, never human invitation.
Calling
Approved rendering: الدعوة
Transliteration: al-da’wah
Doctrine: Divine Calling / Prophetic Calling and Authority
[Inherited from Romans package] Da’wah is the standard Islamic term for human missionary invitation to Islam; here it denotes the reverse direction — God’s own sovereign summons. Amos extension: this distinction must be made explicit at 7:14-15 (Amos’s own calling) and at 9:12 (‘called by my name,’ the OT root of Gentile inclusion), not merely assumed carried over from Romans.
Election
Approved rendering: اختيار الله
Transliteration: ikhtiyār Allāh
Doctrine: Effectual Calling / Divine Election and Covenant Responsibility
Rejected alternatives: القدر
[Inherited from Romans package] Romans 9’s election is God’s specific soteriological choice, not generic fatalism (qadar). Amos extension: directly required at 3:2 (‘you only have I known’), where yada must be understood as this same exclusive, elective, covenantal choice — paired here with intensified rather than removed accountability (‘therefore I will punish you’). Must be taught alongside 9:7’s impartial sovereignty over all nations, not in isolation.
Sin
Approved rendering: الخطية
Transliteration: al-khaṭīyah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: الذنب, الإثم
[Inherited from Romans package] Islamic fitrah doctrine denies inherited sin. Amos extension: this baseline term must be kept DISTINCT from Amos’s pesha (transgression/rebellion, see ‘transgression’ entry below) — الخطية is reserved for hamartia’s milder ‘missing the mark’ sense and must never be substituted for pesha’s willful, treasonous covenant-breach sense used of Gentile nations and Israel/Judah alike (1:3-2:16).
Transgression
Approved rendering: معاصٍ / تعدّيات
Transliteration: maʻāṣin / taʻaddiyāt
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations / Universal Accountability of Nations
Rejected alternatives: الخطية (reserved for the baseline’s milder ḥamartia sense)
Original: פֶּשַׁע
Category: Sin
Pesha: willful, treasonous covenant-breach, applied identically to Gentile nations without Torah (1:3-2:3) and to Judah/Israel (2:4-16) in the ‘for three transgressions… and for four’ formula. Islamic fitrah doctrine resists universal-guilt language; Amos compounds this by holding nations who never received revealed Scripture accountable for basic moral crimes on a natural-law basis — must be taught explicitly, not assumed shared.
Nazirite
Approved rendering: الناذر / المكرَّس لله
Transliteration: al-nādhir / al-mukarras lillāh
Doctrine: Covenant Law and Rejection of the Torah
Rejected alternatives: النذير
Original: נָזִיר
Category: Sanctification
A person under a special vow of consecration (Numbers 6), corrupted by Israel in 2:11-12 (made to drink wine) alongside the silencing of prophets. NEVER render as النذير: despite a genuine cognate root (ن-ذ-ر, ‘vow’), contemporary/Qur’anic Arabic overwhelmingly reads النذير as ‘the Warner,’ a defining prophetic title applied to Muhammad and prior prophets (Qur’an 35:23-24). Use الناذر or a descriptive phrase, with a gloss at first use.
Poor And Needy
Approved rendering: الفقراء / المساكين / المظلومون
Transliteration: al-fuqarā’ / al-masākīn / al-maẓlūmūn
Doctrine: Social Justice and Care for the Poor
Original: אֶבְיוֹן / דַּל / עָנִי
Category: Social Justice
The standing OT vocabulary cluster (evyon/dal/ani) for society’s economically vulnerable, subject to systemic exploitation (2:6-7; 4:1; 5:11-12; 8:4-6). Al-fuqarā’ and al-masākīn are the first two zakāt-recipient categories in the Qur’an (9:60) — a genuine positive bridge, but risk runs toward comfortable domestication: readers may consider Amos’s demand satisfied by personal almsgiving, missing the structural charge against corrupt courts, merchants, and rulers. Every occurrence must be anchored to its concrete textual referent.
Return Repent
Approved rendering: يرجع / يتوب
Transliteration: yarjiʻ / yatūb
Doctrine: Inspiration and Withdrawal of God’s Word / Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Rejected alternatives: التوبة (as a stand-alone, self-sufficient salvific mechanism)
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Salvation
The refrain ‘yet you did not return to me’ following each disciplinary judgment (4:6-11). Islamic tawbah functions as a self-sufficient salvific mechanism (sincere repentance plus amended conduct alone secures forgiveness, without mediating atonement). Amos’s ‘return’ is the covenant-appropriate response of a people already in relationship, not an independent means of earning restoration; teach explicitly alongside later NT grace teaching so the tawbah framework is not read onto this text.
Hate Despise Ritual
Approved rendering: أنا أُبغِض، أنا أرفض / أمقُت
Transliteration: anā ubghiḍ, anā arfuḍ / amqut
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Rejected alternatives: لا أحبّ (a single muted verb, losing double intensity)
Original: שָׂנֵאתִי מָאַסְתִּי
Category: Worship and Ritual
‘I hate, I despise [your feasts]’ (5:21) — God’s active revulsion at worship severed from justice, not mere indifference. BOTH verbs must be retained at full force. Confronts the assumption, present in many religious cultures including strands of popular Islamic piety, that correctly performed ritual automatically secures divine favor irrespective of justice. Genuine apologetic bridge: Qur’an 107 (Sūrat al-Mā’ūn) independently condemns ritual prayer disconnected from care for the orphan and needy — usable pastorally to open, not soften, the rebuke.
Offerings Burnt Grain Peace
Approved rendering: المحرقات / التقدمة / ذبائح السلامة
Transliteration: al-muḥraqāt / al-taqdimah / dhabā’iḥ al-salāmah
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Original: עֹלוֹת / מִנְחָה / שְׁלָמִים
Category: Worship and Ritual
The three principal categories of the Levitical sacrificial system named comprehensively (5:22) to show God’s rejection is total, not selective. Shelamim shares its root with the baseline’s السلام entry; see ‘peace’ entry above for the required cross-reference note distinguishing the OT cultic peace-offering from NT ‘peace with God.‘
Justice Mishpat
Approved rendering: العدل
Transliteration: al-‘adl
Doctrine: Social Justice and Care for the Poor
Original: מִשְׁפָּט
Category: Social Justice
‘Let justice roll down like waters’ (5:24; cf. 5:7,10,12,15). Al-‘Adl (‘The Just’) is one of the 99 names of Allah — a genuine, strong bridge — but popular usage skews toward formal legal/retributive fairness rather than Amos’s sense of an ongoing social current protecting the powerless apart from due legal process. Every occurrence must be reinforced with concrete social content: honest courts, fair wages/weights, protection of the poor.
Plumb Line
Approved rendering: خيط الشاقول
Transliteration: khayṭ al-shāqūl
Doctrine: Judgment Imagery and Prophetic Visions
Rejected alternatives: ميزان
Original: אֲנָךְ
Category: Judgment
A builder’s plumb line, an external, unchanging standard against which God measures Israel’s crookedness in the third vision (7:7-9). NEVER render with ميزان (scale/balance) — reserve that word’s absence here deliberately to avoid collision with the Islamic eschatological Mīzān (deeds-weighing scale, Qur’an 21:47; 101:6-9). A plumb line is a fixed external standard of straightness, categorically distinct from a scale weighing accumulated deeds.
Relent God
Approved rendering: فرقّ الرب / فندم الرب
Transliteration: fa-raqqa al-Rabb / fa-nadima al-Rabb
Doctrine: Intercessory Prayer and Divine Responsiveness
Original: נִחַם
Category: God
‘The LORD relented’ — God’s genuine relational responsiveness to Amos’s intercessory plea in the first two visions (7:3,6). Delicate for readers shaped by tanzīh (divine transcendence, freedom from change/regret) and fatalistic determinism regarding an eternal, unchangeable decree. A note is required: this is anthropopathic narration of real relational responsiveness to prayer, not divine error or a change of eternal character. Partial cultural bridge: Islamic qaḍā’ mu’allaq (a ‘conditional’ decree responsive to du’ā’).
False Balances
Approved rendering: موازين الغش
Transliteration: mawāzīn al-ghishsh
Doctrine: Economic Justice and Honest Commerce
Rejected alternatives: ميزان (unqualified)
Original: מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה
Category: Social Justice
Rigged scales and shrinking measures used to defraud the needy and poor (8:5-6). Hebrew moznayim is the direct root-cognate of Arabic ميزان, carrying immense independent theological weight as the Islamic eschatological deeds-scale (Qur’an 21:47; 101:6-9). NEVER let ميزان stand unqualified in this passage; always pair with الغش (‘fraud’) so it clearly denotes a literal, corrupt marketplace instrument.
Famine Of The Word
Approved rendering: مجاعة لسماع كلام الرب
Transliteration: majā’ah li-samā’ kalām al-Rabb
Doctrine: Inspiration and Withdrawal of God’s Word
Original: רָעָב לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה
Category: Prophecy
A coming judgment in which people desperately seek a word from God through his prophets and find none (8:11-12). Must be cross-referenced with the baseline’s gospel doctrine’s tahrif caution: this verse can be misused polemically as predicting a later ‘loss’ of authentic revelation requiring a corrective text. Amos’s own meaning is a temporary judicial withdrawal of prophetic access from a covenant-breaking generation, not textual corruption of Scripture.
Cushites Sovereignty
Approved rendering: الكوشيون
Transliteration: al-Kūshiyyūn
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Original: כּוּשִׁים
Category: Sovereignty over Nations
‘Are you not like the Cushites to me, O Israel?’ (9:7) — God’s sovereign hand equally guided the histories of Israel’s enemies, flattening any assumption of intrinsic superiority. The proper noun itself (Nubians/Ethiopians) is lexically low-risk; the doctrinal risk (rated High here) is that this verse must be taught alongside 3:2’s election language, not in isolation, or it risks either erasing Israel’s genuine particular election or undermining the Davidic-messianic material immediately following in the same chapter.
Raise Up Restore
Approved rendering: أُقيم
Transliteration: uqīm
Doctrine: The Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent (Messianic Hope)
Original: הֵקִים
Category: Messianic Hope
‘I will raise up’ (9:11), God’s own promised act of restoring the fallen tent of David. Shares its root (ق-و-م) with the baseline’s القيامة (resurrection) — see that entry for the required ‘fruitful connection, not doctrinal equivalence’ note that must accompany every occurrence.
Remnant
Approved rendering: البقية الباقية
Transliteration: al-baqiyyah al-bāqiyah
Doctrine: Remnant Theology and Restoration
Original: שְׁאֵרִית
Category: Messianic Hope
‘The remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name’ (9:12) — a surviving portion, extended remarkably beyond ethnic Israel to include Gentile nations. Connects to Romans 11:5’s remnant theology (implicit in the baseline’s اختيار الله doctrine). Must be taught as the OT root of Gentile inclusion, not merely a note about a surviving fraction of a defeated people, or the doctrinal weight is lost.
Restore Fortunes
Approved rendering: سأرد سبي شعبي / لن يُقتَلعوا بعد
Transliteration: sa-arudd sabī sha’bī / lan yuqtala’ū ba’d
Doctrine: The Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent (Messianic Hope)
Original: שׁוּב שְׁבוּת / נָתַשׁ
Category: Messianic Hope
‘I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel… they shall never again be uprooted’ (9:14-15) — the book’s closing promise of secure, permanent covenant restoration. Inherits the baseline’s caution on إسرائيل in full force: this promise of unshakeable land-possession carries live, real-world political charge and must be framed as fulfilled in the Messiah’s kingdom, never as a contemporary geopolitical claim.
Medium Risk Terms
Gentiles
Approved rendering: الأمم
Transliteration: al-umam
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles / God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Rejected alternatives: الكفار
[Inherited from Romans package] الكفار must never be used. Amos extension: renders goyim, here in the broader geopolitical sense of ‘the nations’ (including Israel/Judah under judgment, chs. 1-2) as well as the narrower Gentile-inclusion sense (9:12, ‘all the nations who are called by my name’). Same Arabic word applies without collision across both senses.
David
Approved rendering: داود
Transliteration: Dāwūd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant / Restoration of David’s Fallen Tent
[Inherited from Romans package] The positively-regarded Qur’anic Dawud carries less of the covenant-king typology pointing forward to a messianic heir; supply that context explicitly. Amos extension: this caution is decisive at 9:11 (‘the fallen tent/booth of David’), the book’s central messianic-hope text — the Qur’anic Dawud has no concept of an eternal dynastic promise or a ‘fallen tent’ requiring restoration; this background must be built, not merely corrected.
Peace
Approved rendering: السلام
Transliteration: al-salām
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: الأمان, الطمأنينة
[Inherited from Romans package] Relational and legal peace secured through justification (Romans 5:1), not the greeting-word sense nor Sufi tranquility (tuma’ninah). Amos extension: shares its root with shelamim (‘peace offerings,’ Amos 5:22, ذبائح السلامة). Every occurrence in the Amos offerings-list must carry a note distinguishing this OT cultic peace-offering (a ritual sacrifice restoring communal fellowship) from the NT ‘peace with God’ the baseline documents — Amos’s own argument (ritual without justice does not secure this peace) anticipates and reinforces, rather than contradicts, the later doctrine.
Covenant Of Brotherhood
Approved rendering: عهد الإخوة
Transliteration: ‘ahd al-ikhwah
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Original: בְּרִית אַחִים
Category: Covenant
Tyre’s specific crime (1:9): betrayal of a treaty of kinship/alliance. Builds on the baseline’s العهد root. Shows covenant-breaking itself, not merely idolatry, is a serious moral crime God judges among Gentile nations.
Secret Counsel
Approved rendering: سرّه
Transliteration: sirruhu
Doctrine: Prophetic Calling and Authority
Rejected alternatives: أسرار (Sufi esoteric knowledge)
Original: סוֹד
Category: Prophecy
God’s own intimate deliberative plan, disclosed to his prophets before he acts (3:7). سرّ/أسرار is a live Sufi mystical technical term (asrār, esoteric knowledge for a spiritual elite). Context must make clear this is God’s plan revealed through the ordinary covenantal office of prophecy, not private mystical illumination.
Tithe
Approved rendering: العُشور
Transliteration: al-‘ushūr
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Original: מַעֲשֵׂר
Category: Worship and Ritual
Named sarcastically alongside sacrifices Israel is ironically commanded to keep bringing (4:4). Islamic fiqh has its own ‘ushr, a positive point of contact, but this creates the same domestication risk noted under poor/needy: correct ritual performance assumed automatically pleasing to God, which this chapter and 5:21-24 explicitly deny.
Prepare To Meet God
Approved rendering: استعدّ للقاء إلهك
Transliteration: ista’idd li-liqā’ ilāhika
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment
Rejected alternatives: لقاء الله (devotional/positive paradise-encounter sense)
Original: הִכּוֹן לִקְרַאת אֱלֹהֶיךָ
Category: Eschatology
‘Prepare to meet your God’ (4:12), a formal summons to imminent divine confrontation, culminating the catalog of ignored discipline. Some devotional Islamic usage treats liqā’ Allāh as a positively-anticipated encounter in paradise; here the sense must remain confrontational judgment, not reunion.
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: رب الجنود
Transliteration: Rabb al-Junūd
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Original: יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי־הַצְּבָאוֹת
Category: God
‘LORD, God of hosts’ (4:13; 5:27; 9:5), a title of supreme cosmic/military sovereignty over every power, heavenly or earthly. Builds on the baseline’s الرب. ‘Hosts’ must be understood cosmically (heavenly armies under God’s command), not read as a this-worldly, nationalist, or militarized claim, given regional political sensitivities around religiously-framed warfare rhetoric.
Seek The Lord
Approved rendering: اطلبوا الرب / التمسوا الرب
Transliteration: uṭlubū al-Rabb / iltamisū al-Rabb
Doctrine: True Worship as Seeking God, Not a Shrine
Original: דָּרַשׁ
Category: Worship and Ritual
‘Seek me and live… seek the LORD and live’ (5:4,6,14), contrasted with seeking shrine-sites (Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba, 5:5). Ensure the contrast remains sharp; do not let it collapse into generic ‘religious devotion’ detached from the specific ethical content Amos supplies immediately afterward (‘establish justice in the gate,’ 5:15).
The Gate
Approved rendering: باب المدينة
Transliteration: bāb al-madīnah
Doctrine: Corrupted Courts and Judicial Bribery
Original: שַׁעַר
Category: Social Justice
The city gate, the customary ancient Near Eastern site of civic assembly and judicial proceedings (5:10,12,15); metonym for the entire judicial system. No exact modern Arabic equivalent institution; requires a brief historical-cultural gloss (‘مكان القضاء’) at first use.
Woe
Approved rendering: الويل
Transliteration: al-wayl
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment
Rejected alternatives: انتبهوا (a mere warning, loses funeral-dirge force)
Original: הוֹי
Category: Judgment
A funeral/lament cry (‘Alas!’) opening a formal prophetic judgment-oracle (5:18). Established liturgical/prophetic cry in Arabic Bible tradition (cf. Matthew 23’s ‘woes’); must retain funeral-dirge force, ironically anticipating the hearers’ own funeral, not their vindication.
Darkness Not Light
Approved rendering: ظلام / لا نور
Transliteration: ẕalām / lā nūr
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment
Original: חֹשֶׁךְ וְלֹא־אוֹר
Category: Eschatology
Judgment-calamity imagery (5:18,20) reversing the popular expectation of light/vindication on the Day of the LORD. نور is also a name of Allah (An-Nūr) and central to the Qur’anic guidance metaphor ‘from darkness to light.’ Keep strictly situational (calamity vs. safety), not the Qur’anic guidance-vs-ignorance epistemological frame.
Feasts Assemblies
Approved rendering: أعيادكم / محافلكم المقدسة
Transliteration: a’yādukum / maḥāfilukum al-muqaddasah
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Original: חַגִּים / עֲצָרוֹת
Category: Worship and Ritual
The full apparatus of Torah-commanded pilgrimage festivals and solemn assemblies (5:21). Chag shares its root (ح-ج-ج) with حجّ (ḥajj) — a genuine, positive point of resonance, not a false-friend risk. Amos condemns ritual detached from justice, not ritual-keeping as such; this principle applies to any tradition’s observance and must be stated, not left implicit.
Those At Ease
Approved rendering: الغافلون
Transliteration: al-ghāfilūn
Doctrine: Wealth, Complacency, and Moral Numbness
Rejected alternatives: المطمئنون
Original: שַׁאֲנַנִּים / בֹּטְחִים
Category: Judgment
False security — trusting national prosperity and status rather than God (6:1). AVOID المطمئنون: this root (ط-م-أ-ن) positively describes ‘al-nafs al-muṭma’innah,’ the soul at peace with God (Qur’an 89:27), a term of high praise. الغافلون (‘the heedless’) aligns instead with the Qur’an’s own negative category of heedlessness (ghaflah), avoiding an incongruous positive resonance in a rebuke passage.
Seer Vs Prophet
Approved rendering: رائٍ / الناظر
Transliteration: rā’in / al-nāẕir
Doctrine: Prophetic Calling and Authority
Original: חֹזֶה
Category: Prophecy
‘Seer’ — Amaziah’s dismissive term for a professional, court-attached visionary, contrasted with Amos’s insistence on a direct, unsolicited divine call (7:12,14). The contrast must be visible in Arabic (a less prestigious ‘seer/visionary’ vs. the full weight of نبي); cross-reference the baseline’s المدعوون/الدعوة doctrine.
Kings Sanctuary
Approved rendering: مقدس الملك
Transliteration: muqaddas al-malik
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Original: מִקְדַּשׁ־מֶלֶךְ
Category: Worship and Ritual
Bethel’s shrine identified as a politically co-opted, state-sponsored royal institution (7:13). Exposes the entanglement of corrupted worship with state power, since the priesthood silencing God’s prophet is itself a state functionary.
Summer Fruit Wordplay
Approved rendering: ثمر الصيف / النهاية
Transliteration: thamar al-ṣayf / al-nihāyah
Doctrine: Judgment Imagery and Prophetic Visions
Original: קַיִץ / קֵץ
Category: Judgment
A deliberate Hebrew pun (qayits/qets) between ‘summer fruit’ and ‘the end,’ signaling Israel is ripe/ready for judgment (8:1-2). No equivalent phonetic pair exists in Arabic (صيف vs. نهاية share no sound correspondence). Insert a mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] rather than force an artificial wordplay, so the theological point — ripeness equals readiness for judgment — is preserved even though the pun itself is not.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: نبي
Transliteration: nabī
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture / Prophetic Calling and Authority
[Inherited from Romans package] Correct and Qur’an-affirmed, but risks readers stopping at ‘prophet’ per khatam an-nabiyyin (seal of the prophets) assumptions of finality. Amos extension: Amos denies being a professional navi by pedigree yet is directly commissioned by God (7:14-15, ‘I was no prophet… the LORD took me… Go, prophesy’) — pair every occurrence with this direct-calling context, contrasted with the dismissive ‘seer’ (חֹזֶה) label Amaziah uses.
Roar
Approved rendering: يزأر
Transliteration: yaz’ar
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Original: שָׁאַג
Category: Judgment
The LORD’s lion-roar judgment-voice (1:2; 3:8), announcing danger before any specific charge is laid; frames the whole book’s cosmic-sovereignty claim. No collision; direct, vivid correspondence.
Fire Judgment
Approved rendering: النار
Transliteration: al-nār
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over All Nations
Original: אֵשׁ
Category: Judgment
Literal/symbolic fire as an instrument of historical divine judgment on nations and Israel (1:4,7,10,12,14; 2:2,5; 7:4). Primarily military-historical judgment here, not afterlife punishment; avoid over-eschatologizing every occurrence into hellfire imagery.
Lament Dirge
Approved rendering: مرثاة
Transliteration: marthāh
Doctrine: Prophetic Lament as a Literary-Theological Form
Original: קִינָה
Category: Prophecy
Formal funeral-dirge poetic form (qinah); Amos sings Israel’s own funeral song in advance (5:1-2). Standard genre term; flag pedagogically as mirrored and reversed at 9:11, where the fallen is raised.
Bribe
Approved rendering: الرشوة
Transliteration: al-rishwah
Doctrine: Corrupted Courts and Judicial Bribery
Original: שֹׁחַד
Category: Social Justice
A payment made to pervert judicial process against the poor (5:12). Directly and equally condemned in Islamic ethics and law; strong shared moral ground requiring little scaffolding.
Wormwood
Approved rendering: العلقم / الأفسنتين
Transliteration: al-‘alqam / al-afsantīn
Doctrine: Social Justice and Care for the Poor
Original: לַעֲנָה
Category: Social Justice
A bitter, poisonous plant; metaphor for justice corrupted into something bitter and harmful (5:7). Low collision risk.
Fattened Animals
Approved rendering: العجول المسمَّنة
Transliteration: al-‘ujūl al-musammanah
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Original: מְרִיאִים
Category: Worship and Ritual
Grain-fed, costly sacrificial animals, showing the offerers bring their best (5:22); intensifies the rejection — even lavish worship cannot purchase favor apart from justice. Direct correspondence; no collision.
Noise Of Songs
Approved rendering: ضجيج أغانيكم / أنغام قيثاراتكم
Transliteration: ḍajīj aghānīkum / anghām qīthārātikum
Doctrine: Judgment on Empty Religious Ritual
Rejected alternatives: أصوات أغانيكم (neutral, loses the deliberate insult)
Original: הֲמוֹן שִׁרֶיךָ / זִמְרַת נְבָלֶיךָ
Category: Worship and Ritual
Worship music reclassified by God as unwanted noise/tumult when divorced from justice (5:23). Use ضجيج (noise/clamor), never the neutral أصوات; worship music itself is not condemned elsewhere in Scripture.
Everflowing Stream
Approved rendering: نهر دائم الجريان
Transliteration: nahr dā’im al-jaryān
Doctrine: Social Justice and Care for the Poor
Original: נַחַל אֵיתָן
Category: Social Justice
Nachal eitan, a perennial wadi that never runs dry (5:24) — image of justice/righteousness as constant, not seasonal. High-resonance, low-risk image for arid-region Arabic-speaking readers, who know intimately the contrast between a seasonal wadi and a rare year-round watercourse; requires no cultural substitution.
Ruin Of Joseph
Approved rendering: انهيار يوسف
Transliteration: inhiyār Yūsuf
Doctrine: Wealth, Complacency, and Moral Numbness
Original: שֵׁבֶר יוֹסֵף
Category: Judgment
The impending national collapse of the northern kingdom (Joseph = Ephraim/Manasseh), mourned by no one among the complacent wealthy (6:6). Direct correspondence; no significant collision.
Locusts
Approved rendering: الجراد
Transliteration: al-jarād
Doctrine: Judgment Imagery and Prophetic Visions
Original: אַרְבֶּה
Category: Judgment
Symbolic instrument of divine judgment shown to Amos in the first vision (7:1-2). Standard covenant-curse imagery; no collision.
Referenced passages