What Does Amos 1:13 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
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
The border’s growth is yoked to the tearing open of pregnant bodies: here, enlargement is measured in human rupture.
THE MEANING
The verse names a violence in which pregnant women’s bodies are torn open to enlarge a border, and the LORD does not turn back the consequence. Its force reaches the present wherever a claim to more territory treats human life as expendable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A larger border can be called progress even when the bodies torn open to make it grow are pushed out of view.
THE ROOT
הַרְחִיב
harḥiv
GROWS FROM
רחב
raḥav
To be broad or spacious; in this form, to widen.
“enlarge” in this verse is harḥiv. The same root names both breadth and the act of making something wider. Here the stated widening is a border, and the verse ties that enlargement to the tearing open of pregnant women’s bodies.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: Broad, wide, spacious.
רָחָב
This adjective shares the seed of “enlarge,” showing the underlying idea of breadth.
merḥav: An open or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This related noun appears in Psalm 18:19, where the speaker is brought into a spacious place; Amos shows territorial widening pursued through violence.
בְּקָעָם
bəqāʿām
GROWS FROM
בקע
baqaʿ
To split, cleave, or break open.
“ripped up” in this verse is bəqāʿām. The Hebrew names the physical act of splitting open directly. Its starkness keeps the women’s bodies at the center of the charge rather than hiding them behind the language of territorial gain.
ALSO GROWS
baqaʿ: To cleave or break something open.
בָּקַע
This is the verb’s basic action, stated here as something done to the pregnant women.
biqʿah: A valley or plain; a landscape term traditionally connected with the root for splitting open.
בִּקְעָה
The related landscape word keeps the root’s sense of an opening concrete, though here the opening is inflicted on bodies.
פִּשְׁעֵי
pishʿei
GROWS FROM
פשע
pashaʿ
To rebel or break away; פֶּשַׁע (peshaʿ) means rebellion or breach.
“transgressions” in this verse is pishʿei. The opening word frames the charge as rebellion, not merely a tally of errors. The verse makes that rupture visible in the violence committed for territorial gain.
ALSO GROWS
peshaʿ: Rebellion; a breach or breaking away.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun is the singular form behind the plural charge in Amos.
posheaʿ: One who rebels.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
The related participle names the person as well as the act, linking the charge to those who enact it.
THE PATTERN
When the pursuit of more treats other people’s lives as expendable, scripture names the gain as violence.
And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.Amos’s “enlarge” comes from רחב (raḥav, to be broad or widen), the root behind מֶרְחָב (merḥav, a broad or open place) in this verse. The shared root brings two kinds of widening into view: a border expands through bodily rupture in Amos, while the psalm’s speaker is brought into spaciousness through deliverance.
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