What Does Amos 7:14 Mean?
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. But I was a herder, and one who pinches sycamore figs.
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
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:THE KEY
The voice stands outside both the title and the family line, and still speaks.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you in the gap between the work you do and the voice you carry. Amos names his trades and denies an inherited prophetic role, yet his words remain before you as words that speak. Your work and your voice occupy the same person without one needing to certify the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A true voice must come with an approved title or inherited credential.
THE ROOT
נָבִיא
nāvîʾ
GROWS FROM
נבא
to speak or declare
Navi (prophet) and nevuah (prophecy) belong to one word-family: the speaker and the speaking are linked. Amos denies the title and its inherited line, while the verse itself holds the act of speaking before you.
ALSO GROWS
nevuah: prophecy
נְבוּאָה
It names the speaking associated with the prophet, keeping role and utterance close.
hitnabbe: to prophesy
הִתְנַבֵּא
It names the act of speaking prophetically, the work the title points toward.
בֵּן
ben
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build or form
Ben (son) shares its root with banah (to build). The phrase “son of a prophet” can carry the sense of being formed within a prophetic line, and Amos says that inherited formation is not what names him.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son
בֵּן
This is the word in “son of a prophet,” placing family or lineage in the sentence.
banah: to build
בָּנָה
It opens the image of a son as one formed within a line or household.
THE PATTERN
A speaking role is not confined to inherited rank or recognized status.
And Moses said to him, "Are you burning for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would set his breath upon them!"But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for to all that I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.THE THREAD
And Moses said to him, "Are you burning for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would set his breath upon them!"The same Hebrew word-family for prophet appears in both verses. Amos denies a prophetic title and lineage, while Moses imagines prophetic speech extending beyond a restricted circle; together, they loosen the role from inherited status.
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