Amo 2:9 | NETfull | STEP | For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground.

Amos 2:9

9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. ^{▼▼ Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mipp^eney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).}
They were as tall as cedars ^{▼▼ Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”}
and as strong as oaks,
but I destroyed the fruit on their branches ^{▼▼ Heb “his fruit from above.”}
and their roots in the ground. ^{▼▼ Heb “and his roots from below.”}