What Does Amos 2:4 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
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
A lie becomes more than an error when it sends a people down the path their fathers already walk.
THE MEANING
The verdict stands against a people whose rebellion reaches into how they hear and walk: the LORD’s instruction is despised, his commands are not kept, and lies make people wander. Falsehood does not stay private; it sets a direction the next generation can keep walking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a path becomes trustworthy through age or repetition: the fathers’ way can still be shaped by lies and rebellion.
THE ROOT
וַיַּתְעוּם
wayyattûʿēm
GROWS FROM
תעה
tāʿāh
To wander, stray, or lose one’s way.
“caused them to err” in this verse is wayyattûʿēm. The verb makes the lies the cause of the wandering: falsehood redirects movement, not only thought. The next clause gives that wandering an inherited road, because the fathers have walked it.
ALSO GROWS
tāʿāh: To wander or go astray.
תָּעָה
This is the root action behind the verse’s image of being led off course.
tōʿeh: One who wanders or strays.
תֹּעֶה
The root can describe the person who has lost the way, showing how deception reshapes those who follow it.
תּוֹרַת
torat
GROWS FROM
ירה
yārāh
To throw or cast; in its instructive sense, to direct or point.
“law” in this verse is torat. Torah carries the sense of instruction that gives direction. Judah’s rejection is a refusal of the guidance that sets the course of the walk.
ALSO GROWS
yārāh: To throw, shoot, or point.
יָרָה
The root’s image of sending something toward a direction illuminates instruction as guidance for a path.
mōreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
The instructor directs; the rejected instruction is guidance the people have turned away from.
פִּשְׁעֵי
pishʿê
GROWS FROM
פשע
pāshaʿ
To rebel, revolt, or break away.
“transgressions” in this verse is pishʿê. The counted acts carry the force of rebellion, a repeated breaking away. This is not only a tally of wrongs; it names a people’s departure from the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel or revolt.
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the repeated transgressions acts of breakaway.
pōshēaʿ: A rebel, one who breaks away.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
The same root describes a person shaped by the rebellion the verse counts.
THE PATTERN
When instruction is refused, falsehood can become an inherited path repeated by a people.
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.THE THREAD
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.Both verses use מָאַס (ma’as, to reject or spurn) for refusing תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction). Jeremiah makes the fruit of rejected instruction visible: the people’s thoughts ripen into consequence.
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