What Does Amos 2:16 Mean in the King James?
And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
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
Even the strongest-hearted among the mighty is left fleeing exposed when the day comes.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the confidence that rank, nerve, or strength guarantees escape. In the day it names, even the most courageous among the powerful runs away exposed; their might cannot shield them from it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that enough courage or power makes anyone invulnerable to judgment.
THE ROOT
אַמִּיץ
ʾammîṣ
GROWS FROM
אמץ
ʾ-m-ṣ
To be firm or strong; to strengthen.
The word rendered “courageous” belongs to the root for being strong and strengthening. Amos places that stout-hearted person among the mighty, then shows him fleeing naked: the verse strips away the idea that inner resolve or power alone can secure escape.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmaṣ: Be strong, be firm.
אָמַץ
This verb shares the seed of “courageous,” linking courage with firmness rather than treating it as a separate quality.
ʾimmēṣ: Strengthen, make firm.
אִמֵּץ
The causative branch shows the root can name strengthening itself; Amos’s stark reversal is that even what has been made strong can still flee exposed.
ʾōmeṣ: Strength, courage.
אֹמֶץ
This noun makes explicit the strength and courage carried by the word in Amos, sharpening the contrast with the flight that follows.
THE PATTERN
When the day of judgment comes, human rank and strength cannot guarantee escape.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;THE THREAD
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.“Courage” here and “courageous” in Amos grow from the same Hebrew root, אמץ (ʾ-m-ṣ), meaning to be strong or strengthen. Deuteronomy grounds courage in God’s presence; Amos shows that even the stout-hearted among the mighty cannot make themselves invulnerable.
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