What Does Amos 5:12 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 bribe is called a covering: injustice pays to hide itself while the poor are bent away from justice.
THE MEANING
God sees the whole chain now: force against the just, payment in the hands of decision-makers, and the poor turned away from what is due. Their exclusion does not make the injustice invisible or their claim any less real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A bribe can make injustice disappear once it has been accepted. This verse says the wrong remains known even when money covers it and the poor are pushed from the gate.
THE ROOT
כֹּפֶר
kofer
GROWS FROM
כפר
Covering; the related noun kofer can mean ransom or bribe.
The word for bribe comes from the root of covering: money in court becomes a cover for the wrong. The poor person’s exclusion shows who is exposed when that covering protects the powerful.
ALSO GROWS
kipper: Cover; make covering, with the sense of atoning.
כִּפֶּר
It shares the covering root and shows how the same word family can describe a covering that addresses a wrong.
kapporet: Covering; the cover of the Ark.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This related word makes the root’s image concrete: something placed over what is inside.
פְּשָׁעִים
pesha’im
GROWS FROM
פשע
Rebellion, breaking away.
“transgressions” in this verse is pesha’im. Pesha names more than an accidental mistake; it carries the force of rebellion. The verse makes that rebellion concrete in acts that oppress the just and deny the poor their claim.
ALSO GROWS
pesha: Rebellion; a breach.
פֶּשַׁע
The singular form preserves the force of the plural Amos uses for repeated rebellion.
poshea: A rebel; one who breaks away.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This related form shows the root can name both the rebellious act and the one who commits it.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge or govern.
“right” in this verse is mishpat. The poor are turned away from mishpat: judgment, justice, and the claim due to them. What is denied at the gate is not merely a favorable outcome but access to justice itself.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge.
שָׁפַט
This verb shows the action at the root of mishpat: rendering judgment.
shofet: A judge; one who judges.
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the person entrusted with the mishpat that the poor are denied.
THE PATTERN
When power or payment bends judgment, the poor are pushed away from justice and its protections.
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?THE THREAD
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.The word translated “ransom” here is כֹּפֶר (kofer), the same word Amos uses for “bribe.” Its range opens the idea of payment that covers or averts a consequence; Amos shows that covering operating in court, where the poor bear the cost.
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