What Does Amos 5:26 Mean in the King James?
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
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 god people carry is itself what they made, so what promises to support them becomes their burden.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as a reversal of dependence: what is made for the self becomes what the self must carry. A self-made source of certainty, status, or protection cannot bear its maker; the bearer is revealed by the weight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that something made to secure you can ultimately carry you.
THE ROOT
נְשָׂאתֶם
nəśāʾtem
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
The verb נְשָׂאתֶם (nəśāʾtem, “you carried”) comes from נשא (nasa, “lift, carry, bear”), the same root behind מַשָּׂא (massa, “load, burden”) and נָשִׂיא (nasi, “prince, chief”). The root holds carrying and weight together: what is carried as a source of power also becomes a load borne by its makers.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This branch makes the weight in “borne” visible: what the reader carries as ultimate support can become a burden.
nasi: Prince or chief; a leader.
נָשִׂיא
This title shares the root of lifting and bearing, bringing the language of authority into a verse where the supposed king depends on those who carry him.
THE PATTERN
What people make for ultimate trust cannot bear its makers; dependence reverses, and the makers become its bearers.
Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.THE THREAD
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.Amos’s נְשָׂאתֶם (nəśāʾtem, “you carried”) and Isaiah’s אֶשָּׂא (eśśāʾ, “I will carry”) share נשא (nasa, “lift, carry, bear”). Amos shows people carrying what they made; Isaiah turns the same verb toward one who carries the people.
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