What Does Amos 5:25 Mean in the King James?
Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
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
Amos turns “offering” into a question of proximity: does the ritual truly bring anything near to God?
THE MEANING
This question reaches the reader wherever religious acts claim to mean closeness to God. Its pressure is whether anything is truly brought near, while justice remains the measure surrounding the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that repeated religious acts, by themselves, prove closeness to God.
THE ROOT
הִגַּשְׁתֶּם
higgash-tem
GROWS FROM
נגשׁ
n-g-sh
Approach, draw near, bring close.
The Hebrew verb means “you brought near,” so the question is about more than performing a ritual: it asks whether anything was actually brought close to God. English “offered” can hide this language of approach.
ALSO GROWS
nagash: Approach or draw near.
נָגַשׁ
It makes nearness the action at the heart of the verse.
higgish: Bring near or present.
הִגִּישׁ
This causative form shows an offering as something brought into proximity.
זְבָחִים
zevachim
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
Slaughter for sacrifice.
The root keeps the slaughter visible inside the English category “sacrifices.” Its altar-branch ties the ritual to a concrete act, sharpening Amos’s question about what was brought near.
ALSO GROWS
zevach: A slaughtered sacrifice.
זֶבַח
It names the act contained in the plural “sacrifices.”
mizbeach: Altar.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The altar belongs to the same root family, linking the place of sacrifice to the slaughter itself.
THE PATTERN
Ritual offerings do not replace the faithful relationship and just life they are meant to express.
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.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.THE THREAD
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.Hosea uses the same זבח (z-b-ḥ), “sacrifice,” root found in Amos’s question. It names faithful love and knowing God as what sacrifice cannot replace, opening the question of what it means to bring something near.
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