What Does Amos 1:1 Mean in the King James?
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Amos’s words are what he first perceives: the verse joins seeing and speaking in a single act.
THE MEANING
A word that concerns a whole people can come from someone among the herdmen, beyond the centers of power. Amos’s sight faces Israel under its kings, while the earthquake marks a shaking beneath the order they rule.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only those near political power can perceive what concerns an entire people.
THE ROOT
חָזָה
ḥāzâ
GROWS FROM
חזה
To see, behold, or perceive.
English “saw” can sound like ordinary observation, but this Hebrew verb also carries the sense of perceiving a vision. The verse places Amos’s words on the far side of that seeing: speech begins with what has come into view.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōzeh: Seer
חֹזֶה
This related form names the person by the act of perceiving, linking Amos’s seeing to the role of a seer.
maḥăzeh: Vision
מַחֲזֶה
This noun names what is seen, showing how the same root connects the perceiver with the vision.
עָמוֹס
ʿāmôs
GROWS FROM
עמס
To load or place a burden on.
Amos’s name echoes the language of being loaded or burdened. Set beside “the words of Amos,” it gives the utterance a sense of weight carried into view, rather than a detached observation.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōmes: Load or burden
עֹמֶס
This noun shares the root consonants and makes the weight resonating in Amos’s name concrete.
ʿāmûs: Loaded or laden
עָמוּס
This related form describes what bears a load, echoing the name’s connection with carrying weight.
הָרָעַשׁ
hā-rāʿash
GROWS FROM
רעש
To shake, tremble, or make a tumultuous noise.
The verse dates Amos’s sight by a shaking of the ground. The root holds both trembling and tumult, so “earthquake” carries a sense of disruption that can be felt as well as heard.
ALSO GROWS
raʿash: Quaking or tumult
רַעַשׁ
This noun shares the root and gathers physical shaking and commotion into one word-family.
hirʿîsh: To cause to shake or make a tumult
הִרְעִישׁ
This causative form shares the root consonants and shows the same movement as something that unsettles what is around it.
THE PATTERN
A prophetic word begins in perception and then reaches speech about what is seen.
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;THE THREAD
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:The Hebrew places יֶחֱזֶה (yeḥĕzeh, “sees”) beside מַחֲזֵה (maḥăzeh, “vision”), both from חזה (ḥāzâ, “to see”). Amos’s “saw” comes from that same root, making explicit the link between perception and the words that emerge from it.
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