What Does Amos 1:3 Mean in the King James?

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:

Amos 1:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The crushing of Gilead is named as rebellion, and the judgment it draws is not turned back.

THE MEANING

When power treats a people as material to be crushed, the act stands exposed as rebellion. The verse keeps the violence concrete, iron threshing tools against Gilead, and refuses to make the victims disappear inside a ruler’s explanation. Judgment is not turned aside.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie it undoes is that crushing a people becomes morally weightless when rulers call it conquest.

THE ROOT

פִּשְׁעֵי

pish‘ei

GROWS FROM

פשע

p-sh-ʿ

Rebel; break away.

“transgressions” in this verse is pish‘ei. Pesha carries the sense of rebellion, a breaking away. Beside the image of iron threshing, the word shows that the violence is not incidental damage: it is rebellion made physical.

ALSO GROWS

pasha: To rebel; to break away.

פָּשַׁע

The verb makes the noun in Amos active: the violence is an act of rebellion.

poshea: A rebel; one who breaks away.

פֹּשֵׁעַ

This names the person who embodies the same rebellion the verse names in Damascus’s deeds.

THE PATTERN

Violence against people is exposed as culpable and answered with judgment.

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:

Amos 1:13 · KJVThe same rising count frames another act of violence against Gilead as rebellion that will not be excused.

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Genesis 9:6 · KJVThe verse makes the taking of human life answerable because human life bears God’s image.

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Matthew 26:52 · KJVThe sword’s violence carries its own consequence; it does not remain consequence-free in the hands of power.

THE THREAD

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:

Amos 1:6 · KJV

“Transgressions” here and in Amos 1:3 comes from ⁨פשע⁩ (pasha), rebellion, breaking away. One verse names Gilead crushed under iron; the other names captives carried away, making the same root visible in two forms of violence against a people.

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