What Does Amos 2:13 Mean?

(13) **I am pressed**.—Baur, Pusey, and *Speaker’s Commentary* support this rendering of the Heb. *mē‘îq*, the corresponding form in the next clause also being taken in the intransitive (*i.e.,* passive sense). But it is unlikely that God, in this passage, should declare Himself “crushed” under the weight of Israel’s sin, for in the context it is Israel, and not God, who is described as the victim, Moreover, grammatical usage is against the rendering of *mē‘îq* as passive; nor does it favour Ewald’s, as well as Keil’s, interpretation “press you *down”* Translate (see margin) *Behold, I am pressing down beneath you* (literally, *your place*)*, just as the waggon, filled up with sheaves, presses down.* Jehovah, in the awful judgment which He inflicts, is symbolised by the heavily-laden waggon. The expression “beneath you” suggests that the evil is not confined to the present. Israel, the nation weighted with the doom of past iniquities, bequeathes a yet more crushing load to future generations. If the text is sound, this appears the only satisfactory rendering of a difficult passage.