What Does Amos 5:17 Mean in the King James?
And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
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 LORD’s passage turns every vineyard, a place of cultivation, into a place of mourning.
THE MEANING
Grief fills the vineyards as the LORD passes through. The verse holds divine presence as judgment with consequences reaching into the places that sustain life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the LORD’s nearness always feels like protection or abundance; here, his passing brings grief into every vineyard.
THE ROOT
אֶעֱבֹר
ʾeʿĕvōr
GROWS FROM
עבר
Cross, pass over, pass through.
“pass through” in this verse is ʾeʿĕvōr. The English can make this sound like movement through space alone. The root also carries the sense of crossing a boundary, so the LORD’s passage reaches through the whole place as an act of judgment.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: Across, beyond, or the other side.
עֵבֶר
The idea of crossing opens onto what lies beyond; the passage in Amos reaches across the community.
ʿābar: To cross over or transgress.
עָבַר
The same crossing verb can describe overstepping a boundary, adding the force of an incursion to the LORD’s passage.
מִסְפֵּד
mispēd
GROWS FROM
ספד
Mourn, lament.
“wailing” in this verse is mispēd. The word names lamentation, not just a loud cry. The grief is shared and audible across the vineyards, as mourning overtakes places associated with cultivation.
ALSO GROWS
sāphad: To mourn or lament.
סָפַד
The verb shows that the wailing is an act of mourning, not simply a sound.
mispēd: Lamentation or mourning.
מִסְפֵּד
This noun form makes the grief itself the scene filling every vineyard.
THE PATTERN
When judgment passes through a community, its ordinary places of livelihood become sites of public grief.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.Amos’s “pass through thee” uses the same Hebrew root, עבר, as “I will pass through the land of Egypt.” In both verses, the passing is an act of judgment whose effects reach the land and the people within it.
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