What Does Amos 4:4 Mean in the King James?
Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
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’s biting irony is that sacred attendance and multiplying rebellion appear in the same sentence.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in a voice of biting irony: its call to worship turns into a call to transgress, showing that religious observance and rebellion can occupy the same life. Offerings and tithes do not erase the rupture named by the repeated word; their abundance sits beside it in plain view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that abundant religious practice makes rebellion irrelevant.
THE ROOT
וּפִשְׁעוּ
u-fishʿu
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel or revolt; a rupture of allegiance.
“transgress / transgression” in this verse is u-fishʿu. The verse first says “transgress” and then “multiply transgression” with the same פשע root. Hebrew makes the indictment cumulative: rebellion is deepening in the very setting of offerings, not appearing as an accidental slip erased by ritual.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel or revolt.
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the verse’s call a deliberate act of rebellion, not a vague failure.
peshaʿ: Rebellion, revolt, transgression.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the same rupture that the verse commands readers to multiply.
THE PATTERN
When worship remains abundant while response to God is absent, the ritual itself exposes the rupture.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.THE THREAD
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:The same פשע root appears in Amos 1:3 as “transgressions” and in 4:4 as both “transgress” and “transgression.” The link makes rebellion’s accumulation audible, while Amos 4:4 sets it beside daily sacrifices and tithes.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us