What Does Amos 6:11 Mean in the King James?
For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
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 “clefts” come from בָּקַע (baqa, “split open”), the same root that divides the sea elsewhere, here the split tears through a house instead of opening a way through water.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s command reaches both the great house and the little one: one breaks into fragments, the other is split open. The size of a shelter does not place it beyond the force that strikes it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a shelter’s size can make it safe from the command confronting it.
THE ROOT
בְּקָעִים
beqa’im
GROWS FROM
בקע
To split, cleave open, or break through.
“Clefts” carries the force of something split open, not merely marked by surface cracks. The same root describes the sea being divided and light breaking forth, so here the house is cleaved through.
ALSO GROWS
baqa: To split, cleave, or break open.
בָּקַע
This verbal form names the opening force behind the clefts in the little house.
biq’ah: A valley or plain.
בִּקְעָה
The word carries the image of ground opened into a broad cleft.
וְהִכָּה
we-hikkah
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike or strike down.
“smite” in this verse is we-hikkah. This root names the striking itself and branches into the blow and the one left stricken. The verse holds the impact and its damage together as both houses are struck.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The blow is the result of the same striking named in the verse.
makkeh: One who strikes.
מַכֵּה
This form keeps the striking agent visible within the same root-family.
מְצַוֶּה
metsavveh
GROWS FROM
צוה
To command or appoint.
“commandeth” in this verse is metsavveh. The verse places the breaking under a command; it does not describe an accidental collapse. Related forms of this root name both a commandment and a directive.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: A commandment.
מִצְוָה
It shows the root’s connection to an instruction given with authority.
tsav: A command or directive.
צַו
This form keeps the root’s direct sense of an issued command.
THE PATTERN
What splits open a sealed thing can expose it to ruin or open a way through it.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.The word translated “clefts” comes from בקע (baqa, “split open”), the same root rendered “divided” when the sea opens. In Amos the split tears through shelter; in Exodus it opens a way through water, so the root holds both breach and passage.
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