What Does Amos 3:1 Mean?
Hear and respond to this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
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
Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,THE KEY
The voice that brought the whole family up from constriction now speaks against them: being delivered does not place anyone beyond correction.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as part of a whole family by a word from the LORD, and that word speaks against you. It remembers being brought up from Egypt, holding deliverance and confrontation together: being brought out does not make you beyond correction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being delivered means every word from God will only affirm you.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu from shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and heed.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿu from shamaʿ. English “hear” can sound like sound merely reaches the ear, while שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear, listen, heed) can carry attention that answers. The opening command calls for hearing that receives even the word spoken “against” the family.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
The verb’s range makes this more than noticing that a message has been spoken.
shemuʿah: A report or thing heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The word heard can carry the substance of what is said, including its difficult charge.
הֶעֱלֵיתִי
heʿeliti
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend; in this causative form, to bring up or cause to ascend.
“brought up” in this verse is heʿeliti. The verb pictures the family being caused to rise from Egypt. Beside the name Mitzrayim, with its image of narrowness, this is movement up and out of constriction; the verse remembers that deliverance as it brings a confronting word.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up, rise, or ascend.
עָלָה
This is the root movement inside “brought up,” making the exodus an ascent out of the place named.
aliyah: Ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch keeps the upward movement audible beneath the English phrase.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
The narrow or constricting; Mitzrayim carries the צַר (tzar, narrow) sound with the dual ending -ayim, the image of two narrows.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitsrayim. The name Mitzrayim holds the image of constriction, while “brought up” gives the movement out of it. The verse joins that remembered release to a word spoken against the whole family: deliverance does not make a people incapable of needing correction.
ALSO GROWS
tzar: Narrow, tight, or constricted.
צַר
This is the narrowness heard in the name Mitzrayim.
metzar: A narrow place or distress.
מֵצַר
It makes the name’s constriction tangible as a place one can be brought out of.
THE PATTERN
The voice that brings a people out also calls them to hear and answer, even when its word confronts them.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Both verses begin with שָׁמַע (shemaʿ, hear and respond): Amos calls the whole family to hear a word against it, while Deuteronomy calls Israel to hear the LORD. Together they show that hearing includes receiving the speaker’s whole word, even when it confronts.
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