What Does Amos 3:9 Mean in the King James?
Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
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 verse turns hidden civic harm into a public hearing and a public sight.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the disorder and exploitation inside a society visible to every seat of power. Its public face cannot conceal the harm happening within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A polished center of power is not proof that its people are well; the disorder and exploitation at its heart expose what its appearance conceals.
THE ROOT
עֲשׁוּקִים
ʿashuqim
GROWS FROM
עָשַׁק
to oppress, exploit, or defraud
“The oppressed” are not described as merely unfortunate; the word points to people acted upon through exploitation or fraud. The verse places them in the very midst of the public disorder, making their condition part of what power must look at.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāshaq: to oppress, exploit, or defraud
עָשַׁק
It names the action behind the condition of the people Amos calls oppressed.
ʿōsheq: oppression or extortion
עֹשֶׁק
This noun makes the exploited condition visible as a practice within the community.
הַשְׁמִיעוּ
hashmiʿu
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
to hear or listen
“Publish” in this verse is hashmiʿu. The command means to cause others to hear: the wrongdoing is carried beyond the place where it happens. The verse then commands the witnesses to see, joining what reaches the ear with what stands before the eye.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: to hear or listen
שָׁמַע
This is the seed meaning beneath the command to publish: make the matter heard.
shemuʿah: a report or tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is something received by hearing, linking proclamation with what can no longer remain concealed.
מְהוּמֹת
mehumot
GROWS FROM
הָמָה
to roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound
“tumults” in this verse is mehumot. The word carries the sound of roaring or confusion, giving the disorder an audible texture. The verse places that tumult alongside the exploited, keeping both in view as evidence of what is happening within the city.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: to roar, murmur, or be in turmoil
הָמָה
The verb conveys the noise and unrest behind the word translated “tumults.”
mehumah: confusion or uproar
מְהוּמָה
This related noun names the disordered condition that the verse asks the witnesses to behold.
THE PATTERN
A community’s condition is revealed by the harm done to people with the least power.
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.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.Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.THE THREAD
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:The Hebrew forms עֲשׁוּקִים (ʿashuqim, “those exploited”) in Amos and תַעֲשֹׁק (taʿashoq, “oppress or defraud”) in Proverbs come from עָשַׁק (ʿāshaq, “oppress or defraud”). Amos shows the exploited within the city’s disorder; Proverbs names the gate as a place where that exploitation is exposed.
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