What Does Amos 8:1 Mean in the King James?
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
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 basket’s summer fruit (קַיִץ, qayits, “summer fruit”) is poised to echo “the end” (קֵץ, qets), making ripeness the visible threshold of a season.
THE MEANING
A basket of summer fruit stands before you as a season gathered into view. The Hebrew קַיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”) echoes קֵץ (qets, “end”) in the next verse, where the vision is interpreted as an ending that has arrived. What is fully ripe is no longer only potential; its completion is visible.
THE ROOT
קַיִץ
qayits
GROWS FROM
קיץ
Summer; the fruit or produce of summer.
“summer fruit” in this verse is qayits. This noun holds crop and season together: the fruit names the summer, and the summer names the fruit. Its sound approaches קֵץ (qets, “end”) in the next verse, a near-echo rather than the same root, so the basket’s maturity becomes the image of a season at its limit.
ALSO GROWS
Summer: The summer season.
קַיִץ
The same noun carries the season itself; the basket holds more than produce, it holds a season made visible.
Summer fruit: Produce gathered in summer.
קַיִץ
The crop shares the season’s name, binding ripeness to the time that brought it forth.
THE PATTERN
Ripeness marks the threshold when what has matured reaches its decisive harvest or end.
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.THE THREAD
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.The next verse turns the image into its meaning: summer fruit (קַיִץ, qayits) echoes end (קֵץ, qets). The sound echo is not a shared root; it makes the basket the visible threshold named in the next line.
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