What Does Amos 5:23 Mean in the King James?
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
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
A full, finely played song can still be refused as noise by the one it addresses.
THE MEANING
The verse names the songs as noise before God and says their melody does not compel God to hear them. Its force remains now: abundant sound and religious form do not by themselves create reception.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that beautiful or abundant religious performance guarantees divine reception.
THE ROOT
אֶשְׁמָע
eshmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
Hear, listen, attend to, or heed.
“hear” in this verse is eshmaʿ. The Hebrew word can reach from hearing sound to attending to or heeding what is heard. The verse places that receptive hearing beside music that is abundant but refused.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen.
שְׁמַע
This imperative shares the same root and makes hearing an act of attention, not merely the arrival of sound.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This noun carries the root from hearing into what is received and communicated.
הֲמוֹן
hamon
GROWS FROM
המה
hamah
Roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound.
“noise” in this verse is hamon. Hamon can name a tumultuous mass or multitude; here it presents the songs as a surge of sound. Set beside shama, the line distinguishes abundant sound from attentive reception.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To roar, murmur, or make noise.
הָמָה
The verbal form evokes the sound swelling behind the verse’s word for noise.
hamullah: Uproar or tumult.
הֲמוּלָה
This related word carries the same noisy force, illuminating how song can register as clamor rather than received expression.
הָסֵר
haser
GROWS FROM
סור
sur
Turn aside or depart; in a causative form, remove.
“take thou away” in this verse is haser. The command pictures the sound being made to turn aside and leave God’s presence. The verse asks for removal before it speaks of hearing.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This basic form shows the movement contained in the command to take the sound away.
hesir: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form from the same root expresses making something depart, as the verse does with the songs.
THE PATTERN
When ritual sound stands apart from justice and responsive listening, its abundance cannot compel divine reception.
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
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.Amos uses שמע (shamaʿ) when God says the melody will not be heard; Samuel uses the same root for hearkening to the LORD’s voice. The shared root draws a line between sound offered upward and the act of hearing that responds.
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