What Does Amos 5:11 Mean in the King James?
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
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 “pleasant” vineyard shares its root with “covet,” so the desire behind the taking is bound to a harvest its owner cannot enjoy.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now wherever one person’s scarcity is turned into another’s security: the extraction leaves its builder with a house they cannot inhabit and fruit they cannot taste. It names a split between possessing the visible result and receiving its life. The stone and vines are there; enjoyment is withheld.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A house and harvest secured by taking from others guarantee security and enjoyment.
THE ROOT
דַּל
dal
GROWS FROM
דלל
dalal
To be low, weak, or diminished.
“Poor” belongs to a root family of being brought low or diminished. Set beside the image of treading upon this person, the word points to someone already made vulnerable, whose scarcity becomes the source of another’s gain.
ALSO GROWS
dal: Low, weak, or poor.
דַל
This is the word used for the poor person in the verse; its sense of being low sharpens the force of being trodden upon.
dallut: Poverty or want.
דַּלּוּת
This branch names the diminished condition that the taking of grain deepens.
חֶמֶד
chemed
GROWS FROM
חמד
chamad
To desire or find desirable.
The word translated “pleasant” describes what is desirable, from the same root that can mean “covet.” The verse places seized grain beside a desired vineyard, then withholds the enjoyment of what has been planted.
ALSO GROWS
chamad: To desire or covet.
חָמַד
This verb appears in Micah 2:2 for coveting fields; it reveals the shared root between acquisitive desire and the vineyard called desirable here.
machmad: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This branch describes what is prized, echoing the vineyard’s desirability and the value being pursued.
THE PATTERN
When one person’s harvest is built on another’s deprivation, the possessor’s apparent gain can be separated from its enjoyment.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.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.THE THREAD
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.The same house-then-vineyard sequence appears with the same withheld dwelling and harvest. It opens Amos’s image further: possession can be complete in appearance while the possessor is shut out from its enjoyment.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us