Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 2:13

"Behold, I will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves." — Amos 2:13 (ASV)

I am pressed.—Baur, Pusey, and the Speaker’s Commentary support this rendering of the Hebrew mç‘îq, with the corresponding form in the next clause also being understood in the intransitive (i.e., passive sense).

However, it is unlikely that God, in this passage, would declare Himself “crushed” under the weight of Israel’s sin. In the context, it is Israel, not God, who is described as the victim. Moreover, grammatical usage is against rendering mç‘îq as passive, nor does it favor Ewald’s, as well as Keil’s, interpretation “press you down.”

Translate this (as noted in the margin) as: Behold, I am pressing down beneath you (literally, your place), just as the wagon, filled with sheaves, presses down.

Jehovah, in the awful judgment He inflicts, is symbolized by the heavily-laden wagon.

The expression “beneath you” suggests that the evil is not confined to the present. Israel, the nation weighted with the doom of past iniquities, bequeaths a yet more crushing load to future generations. If the text is sound, this appears to be the only satisfactory rendering of a difficult passage.