What Does Amos 4:6 Mean in the King James?

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

Amos 4:6 · 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 clean teeth are evidence of hunger, and even that emptiness does not turn you back.

THE MEANING

God names himself as the giver of the lack and addresses you as still not returned to him. Need does not automatically turn you toward God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the belief that suffering automatically produces repentance: deprivation can be severe while the turn remains absent.

THE ROOT

שַׁבְתֶּם

shavtem

GROWS FROM

שוב

To turn back, return, or restore.

“returned” in this verse is shavtem. The verse does not merely describe hunger; it names a direction that remains unchanged. The same root can describe returning toward God or turning away, so the lack of return is itself a direction, not simply an absence of response.

ALSO GROWS

hēshîv: Cause to return; restore.

הֵשִׁיב

The causative branch makes return a movement that can restore what has gone away, deepening the force of the appeal to come back to God.

meshûvāh: Turning away; backsliding.

מְשׁוּבָה

This branch names the opposite direction from return, showing how the same root holds both the turning back and the turning away.

נִקָּיוֹן

niqqāyôn

GROWS FROM

נקה

To be clean, clear, or free.

“cleanness” in this verse is niqqāyôn. In this famine image, clean teeth are not evidence of plenty: there is no bread to leave a trace. The root’s sense of being clean or free makes the image sharper, this cleanliness comes through deprivation.

ALSO GROWS

nāqî: Clean; innocent; free of guilt.

נָקִי

This adjective shows the root’s reach from physical cleanness to being free of blame.

niqqāh: Clear; leave free or unpunished.

נִקָּה

This verbal form carries the sense of clearing or releasing, while Amos uses the root’s cleanness in a stark image of an empty mouth.

THE PATTERN

Affliction exposes a response to God, but it does not compel a return; pain can be met with turning or with refusal.

So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

Amos 4:8 · KJVThirst intensifies the deprivation, yet the repeated words show that need itself does not produce a return.

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

Hosea 6:1 · KJVHere injury is accompanied by an actual turning toward God, showing that affliction and return can meet without making return automatic.

And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Revelation 16:9 · KJVEven under scorching pain, the people refuse to turn, echoing Amos’s stark separation between suffering and response.

THE THREAD

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

Hosea 6:1 · KJV

The same root ⁨שׁוּב⁩ (shuv, turn back or return) marks the movement in both verses. Amos names hunger beside a missing return; Hosea gives the words of return amid tearing and striking. Pain can accompany turning, but it is not the turn itself.

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