What Does Amos 1:9 Mean?
Thus says the LORD, for three rebellions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn it back; because they handed over an entire people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brothers.
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
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:THE KEY
The verse treats handing people over and forgetting the covenant that names them brothers as one breach: the forgetting is visible in the handover.
THE MEANING
A covenant between brothers is present in how those under its bond are treated. Here, handing captives to Edom and failing to keep that bond in mind are parts of the same betrayal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that forgetting a covenant is only a private lapse; this verse shows that the breach takes shape in what happens to the people it binds.
THE ROOT
פִּשְׁעֵי
pishʿê
GROWS FROM
פ־ש־ע
p-sh-ʿ
To rebel, revolt, or break away.
“rebellions” in this verse is pishʿê. The word translated “transgressions” carries the sense of rebellion or breaking away. The counted offenses are framed as breaches of relationship, and the verse names the betrayal of a brotherly bond as one of them.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: Rebellion, breach.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun makes the idea of breaking away explicit, illuminating the covenant betrayal named in the verse.
vayyifshəʿu: They rebelled.
וַיִּפְשְׁעוּ
The same root appears as an act of rebellion, showing how the root’s idea of breaking away becomes something people do.
הִסְגִּירָם
hisgiram
GROWS FROM
ס־ג־ר
s-g-r
To shut or close; in a causative form, to shut in or hand over.
“handed over” in this verse is hisgiram. The verb for handing people over grows from a root meaning to shut or close. English gives the transfer; the Hebrew root also carries the image of closing people into another power’s reach.
ALSO GROWS
sagar: To shut, close.
סָגַר
This basic form gives the root image behind the act of handing the captives over.
misgeret: Frame, border, enclosure.
מִסְגֶּרֶת
This related form names a boundary or enclosure, echoing the captives’ confinement under the power receiving them.
וְלֹא זָכְרוּ
velo zakheru
GROWS FROM
ז־כ־ר
z-k-r
To remember, recall, or bring to mind.
“did not remember” in this verse is velo zakheru. The Hebrew root of “remember” also gives words for a memorial and for bringing something to remembrance. In this verse, the failure to remember the covenant is not detached from conduct: the handover shows the bond is not being kept in force.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Memorial, remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present, sharpening the contrast with a covenant left unremembered.
hizkir: To mention, bring to remembrance.
הִזְכִּיר
This form makes remembrance something brought into the present, illuminating what the verse says was absent.
THE PATTERN
A bond between brothers becomes visible in whether people protect one another and keep the covenant between them in force.
You shall not recoil from an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not recoil from an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously, each man against his brother, by piercing the covenant of our fathers?Whoever has the world's means of living, and gazes upon his brother in need, and shuts his inner parts away from him, how does the love of God remain in him?THE THREAD
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.Amos says Tyre did not remember the covenant between brothers; Genesis uses the same Hebrew root זכר (zakar, remember) for remembering a covenant. In both verses, remembrance is joined to what happens to living beings, so it reaches beyond keeping a thought to keeping the bond present.
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