What Does Amos 7:12 Mean in the King James?
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
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
Amaziah does not deny Amos’s sight; he tries to relocate prophetic speech to a place where it can earn bread.
THE MEANING
You can be recognized as someone who sees and still be told to speak only where your words trouble no power. The offered destination and bread make prophecy sound like a trade that can be moved elsewhere. The repeated “there” draws a boundary around where Amos may speak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that recognition means welcome: Amaziah calls Amos a seer and, in the same breath, orders him away.
THE ROOT
תִּנָּבֵא
tinnāvēʾ
GROWS FROM
נבא
To speak as a prophet; to announce a prophetic message.
“prophesy” in this verse is tinnāvēʾ. The root נבא (n-b-ʾ), meaning to speak prophetically, also forms נָבִיא (navi, “prophet”) and נְבוּאָה (nevu’ah, “prophecy”). Amaziah recognizes Amos as a seer but tries to move the prophetic speaking elsewhere, as though its place can be assigned by command.
ALSO GROWS
navi: Prophet
נָבִיא
The same root names the person who speaks prophetically, so Amos’s identity and his speech belong to one word-family.
nevu’ah: Prophecy; prophetic utterance
נְבוּאָה
This branch names the message itself, linking the act Amaziah tries to relocate with the prophetic word Amos carries.
THE PATTERN
Human power tries to set the boundary of a witness’s speech, while the word received presses across that boundary.
But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.THE THREAD
And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.The Hebrew root נבא, meaning to speak prophetically, appears again in the command “prophesy.” Amaziah tells Amos where to speak; this verse names who sends him and to whom the message is directed.
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