translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: AMO

label: NET study note

text: The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel , 115.


text: Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival , just as it was on the Sabbath.


text: In an oath one appeals to something permanent to emphasize one’s commitment to the promise. Here the Lord sarcastically swears by the arrogance of Jacob , which he earlier had condemned ( 6:8 ), something just as enduring as the Lord ’s own life (see 6:8 ) or unchanging character (see 4:2 ). Other suggestions include that the Lord is swearing by the land, his most valuable possession (cf. Isa 4:2 ; Ps 47:4 [ 47:5 HT]); that this is a divine epithet analogous to “the Glory of Israel” ( 1 Sam 15:29 ); or that an ellipsis should be understood here, in which case the meaning is the same as that of 6:8 (“The Lord has sworn [by himself] against the arrogance of Jacob”).


text: Your god is not identified. It may refer to another patron deity who was not the God of Israel, a local manifestation of the Lord that was worshiped by the people there, or, more specifically, the golden calf image erected in Dan by Jeroboam I (see 1 Kgs 12:28-30 ).