What Does Amos 5:9 Mean in the King James?
That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
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 “spoiled” carries the force of devastation itself, flashing against the strong and reaching the fortress.
THE MEANING
The One who orders the heavens directs devastation against strength itself, until it reaches the fortress. The verse leaves no stronghold beyond that reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that strength and defenses can make a person or a stronghold untouchable.
THE ROOT
הַמַּבְלִיג
ham-mablīg
GROWS FROM
בלג
b-l-g
To brighten or revive; here, to make something flash forth.
Alongside the KJV’s “strengtheneth,” this verb carries the image of flashing or breaking forth. Devastation surges against the strong with sudden force.
ALSO GROWS
balag: Brighten, recover cheer
בָּלַג
In Job 9:27, this root describes brightening or cheering oneself; Amos gives its sudden force an outward direction.
ʾavligah: I will brighten or cheer myself
אַבְלִיגָה
This form from Job 9:27 shares the same root; in Amos, the flash of force is turned against what seems powerful.
שֹׁד
shod
GROWS FROM
שדד
sh-d-d
To devastate, ravage, or despoil.
“spoiled” in this verse is shod. The Hebrew repeats שֹׁד (shod, devastation) in the verse: first against the strong, then coming upon the fortress. What can sound like a passive condition in English becomes an advancing force.
ALSO GROWS
shādad: To devastate, ravage, despoil
שָׁדַד
This verb is the action behind shod; the spoil in Amos carries the force of the ravaging itself.
shoded: Destroyer, devastator
שֹׁדֵד
This agent noun belongs to the same root family, echoing how Amos makes devastation the force that advances.
מִבְצָר
mivtsar
GROWS FROM
בצר
b-ṣ-r
To fortify or make inaccessible; also, to withhold or restrain.
The fortress belongs to a root of fortifying and holding back. When devastation comes upon the mivtsar, it reaches the very place built to keep danger out.
ALSO GROWS
bāṣar: To fortify, make inaccessible
בָּצַר
This verb names the work a fortress is meant to do: create a barrier against approach.
yibbāṣēr: Be withheld or restrained
יִבָּצֵר
This form appears in Genesis 11:6; the same root that gives a fortress its boundary can describe what is held back.
THE PATTERN
Human strength and defenses cannot make any position invulnerable before divine power.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;THE THREAD
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.Isaiah uses the same noun שֹׁד (shod, devastation) that Amos repeats against the strong and the fortress. The shared root lets you hear devastation as an arriving force, reaching even where human power expects shelter.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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