What Does Amos 1:14 Mean?
But I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:THE KEY
The fire reaches the wall and turns the palace itself into what it eats.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of judgment reaching a defended city, consuming its palaces as battle cries and a whirlwind fill the day. Its violence stays fully visible: walls and power do not keep destruction outside.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that walls and power make a city untouchable dissolves here; the fire reaches the wall and the palaces are consumed.
THE ROOT
וְאָכְלָה
veʾākhəlāh
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾ-k-l
Eat, consume.
The Hebrew uses the language of eating: the palaces become what the fire consumes. English “devour” preserves some of this force, but the root connects the action to food and to the act of eating.
ALSO GROWS
ʾākal: To eat, consume.
אָכַל
The verb names the consuming action pictured in the verse.
ʾōkhel: Food, that which is eaten.
אֹכֶל
This branch makes the image stark: the palaces are what the fire feeds on.
maʾăkhāl: Food, something edible.
מַאֲכָל
The same root turns what is consumed into a thing to be consumed, sharpening the image of the city’s palaces as prey to the fire.
תְּרוּעָה
teruʿah
GROWS FROM
רוע
r-w-ʿ
Raise a shout; cry aloud.
“shouting” in this verse is teruʿah. This is a shout of alarm or acclaim, and here it belongs to the day of battle. The sound is part of the assault: judgment is heard as well as seen.
ALSO GROWS
rûaʿ: To shout, cry aloud.
רוּעַ
The verb supplies the vocal force behind the battle noise.
teruʿah: A shout, alarm, or trumpet blast.
תְּרוּעָה
The noun can name a signal of alarm, making the sound in this verse feel like a battle cry rather than background noise.
THE PATTERN
When judgment overtakes a city, scripture pictures its power and structures as unable to withstand consuming force.
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall eat the strongholds of Ben-hadad.Therefore, look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will sound the war-shout against Rabbah of the children of Ammon. It shall become an emptied heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire. Then Israel shall take hold of those who took hold of him, says the LORD.Therefore her blows shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and hunger; and she shall be burned down with fire, for strong is the LORD God who judges her.THE THREAD
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall eat the strongholds of Ben-hadad.Both verses use the Hebrew root אכל (ʾ-k-l), “eat, consume,” for what the fire does to the palaces. The repeated image reveals the same mechanism: the seat of power becomes what the fire consumes.
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