What Does Amos 2:7 Mean?
That pant after the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and bend aside the way of the bowed ones; and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, to profane my set-apart name.
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
That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:THE KEY
God’s name carries God’s nature, and Amos locates its profanation in the bending of the meek’s path and the sexual use of a young woman.
THE MEANING
The image of dust on the poor person’s head, the diversion of the meek’s way, and a man and his father sexually using the same young woman stand under one charge: profaning God’s set-apart name. A name carries nature, so what happens to the vulnerable exposes the contradiction between claiming sacredness and degrading those with least power.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that God can be honored while the poor are pressed down and the vulnerable are sexually exploited.
THE ROOT
יַטּוּ
yaṭṭû
GROWS FROM
נטה
n-ṭ-h
נטה (nāṭâ) means to stretch out, extend, or incline; here it describes bending or turning aside.
“bend aside” in this verse is yaṭṭû. The verb holds both extension and inclination together: the meek’s way is actively bent away from them. Injustice is pictured as power redirecting the course available to another person.
ALSO GROWS
nāṭâ yād: Stretch out a hand
נָטָה יָד
This use shows the root’s concrete sense of reaching outward; the same reach can serve or exert control.
nāṭâ ʾōhel: Pitch or stretch a tent
נָטָה אֹהֶל
The root can describe extending space to make a dwelling; in Amos, the same motion of bending redirects the meek’s path.
קָדְשִׁי
qodshî
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
קדש (qādaš) means to be set apart or consecrated.
The phrase means “my set-apart name.” The verse places that sacredness directly beside oppression and sexual exploitation, showing that what is called set apart is contradicted by degrading the vulnerable.
ALSO GROWS
qādôsh: Set apart, holy
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective names what stands apart as sacred; Amos says that status is profaned through concrete harm.
qōdeš: Set-apartness, sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
The noun names the condition of being sacred, which the verse ties to how people with least power are treated.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary, set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is a place marked as set apart; Amos brings the question of sacredness into the treatment of people.
דֶּרֶךְ
déreḵ
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
דרך (dāraḵ) means to tread, step, or make a track.
Derek, “way,” grows from the language of treading: a way is ground marked by steps. Alongside nāṭâ, “turn aside,” it pictures the meek’s actual path being bent away from them.
ALSO GROWS
déreḵ: Way, road, path
דֶּרֶךְ
The word names the route people travel; Amos says that route is being redirected away from the meek.
dāraḵ: Tread, step, march
דָּרַךְ
This verb keeps the physical act of making a track visible: the way is shaped by where feet are allowed to go.
THE PATTERN
What people do to the poor and least powerful is counted as a statement about the God they claim to honor.
The one who presses the emptied one taunts his Maker, but the one who gives him weight favors the poor.Learn to do good. Seek justice, straighten the crushed, judge the fatherless, contend for the widow.Then he answers them, saying, Truly, I say to you, Whatever you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.THE THREAD
To bend aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the bowed ones of my people, that widows be their spoil, and that they strip the fatherless!Amos and Isaiah use the same root, נטה (nāṭâ, to incline or turn aside): injustice is an active bending of another person’s path. Isaiah makes that bending explicit as diverting the needy from judgment and stripping the poor, widows, and fatherless of protection.
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