What Does Amos 5:3 Mean in the King James?
For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the 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
The verse turns every boast of scale into a count of what remains: a thousand becomes a hundred, and a hundred becomes ten.
THE MEANING
The LORD GOD declares a city decimated: of the thousand who go out, a hundred remain, and of the hundred, ten. The dwindling numbers make the scale of loss explicit; the remnant measures the devastation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a large force can secure a city: the thousand is still reduced to a hundred, and the hundred to ten.
THE ROOT
תַּשְׁאִיר
tash'ir
GROWS FROM
שׁ־א־ר
sh-ʾ-r
Remain, be left over; in this form, leave or retain.
The verb translated “shall leave” comes from a root centered on what remains or is left behind. Its repetition makes the survivors, not the force that goes out, the measure of the loss.
ALSO GROWS
nish'ar: Be left; remain.
נִשְׁאַר
This form makes explicit the condition the verse counts: what is left after the city’s losses.
she'erit: Remnant; remainder.
שְׁאֵרִית
The same root names the survivors as a remnant, linking the verse’s arithmetic to the idea of what remains after devastation.
THE PATTERN
When a people is brought low, the survivors are counted as a small remnant of what once seemed numerous.
And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:THE THREAD
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.The Hebrew root שׁ־א־ר (sh-ʾ-r), meaning “remain” or “be left,” names what the city retains in Amos and appears in Isaiah’s word for “remnant.” Amos gives the remainder as one-tenth; Isaiah describes that remnant as returning.
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