Undeterred by this verbal onslaught, Amos answered: “I was not a prophet, neither was I the son of a prophet; but I was a herdsman and a nipper of figs of sycamore trees.
In the Shephelah, an area that includes the foothills between the central mountain range and the Mediterranean Coast, the sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus) was also abundant.
אני מתכוון, זה באמת. יצא מכלל שליטה מהרjw2019 jw2019
However, nipping was practiced by the Israelites in Amos’ day, since the sycamores that grew in Israel at that time descended from the Egyptian varieties.
However, the journal Economic Botany says that an appropriate translation of the term would be “piercer” because this word indicates a special action of the cultivator of sycamore figs.