What Does Amos 6:7 Mean in the King James?
Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
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 Hebrew lets exile carry an echo of exposure: those reclining at ease are carried away at the head of the procession that strips their security bare.
THE MEANING
This verse names the moment apparent safety collapses: those reclining at ease are carried away at the head of the captives. Their revelry passes away with them, and the place that signaled prominence becomes the front of the captive line.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Ease and rank can place a person beyond consequence.
THE ROOT
יִגְלוּ
yiglu
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover, reveal; also remove or lead away into exile.
“Go captive” (יִגְלוּ, yiglu) and “captives” (גֹּלִים, golim) repeat the same root. Because גלה (galah) also means “uncover” or “reveal,” exile carries an echo of exposure: removal from their place lays bare the vulnerability their feast concealed.
ALSO GROWS
galah: Uncover, reveal
גָּלָה
This sense gives exile an accompanying image of what happens when cover and security are removed.
golah: Exile, captivity
גּוֹלָה
This branch names the condition into which the reclining revelers are carried.
בְּרֹאשׁ
berosh
GROWS FROM
ראשׁ
Head, top, beginning; by extension, foremost or chief.
The KJV says they go captive “with the first”; Hebrew pictures them “at the head of the exiles.” Their position at the head is not preserved as honor: it becomes the front of the captive line.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head, top
רֹאשׁ
The literal sense makes the procession image sharper: they are at its head.
reshit: Beginning, first portion
רֵאשִׁית
This related form carries the sense of firstness heard in the KJV rendering.
THE PATTERN
When abundance becomes a shelter from what is coming, the feast ends and its security is stripped away.
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.Amos’s יִגְלוּ (yiglu, “go into exile”) and Isaiah’s “gone into captivity” come from גלה (galah), the root that also means “uncover” or “reveal.” The shared root lets exile carry an echo of exposure: removal from a place reveals what comfort could not secure.
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