What Does Amos 8:2 Mean in the King James?
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 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
In Hebrew, קַיִץ (qayits, summer fruit) echoes קֵץ (qets, end), so the basket already carries the sound of the verdict.
THE MEANING
Ripe fruit sits before you as a sign that the season has reached its edge. The LORD names the consequence without softening it: the end has come upon Israel, and he will no longer pass over them. The verse holds ripeness and judgment in one moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being passed over once means every reckoning can be deferred without end.
THE ROOT
קֵץ
qēts
GROWS FROM
קצץ
Cut off; bring to an end.
The end-word carries the sense of continuation being cut off. The vision’s קַיִץ (qayits, summer fruit) echoes קֵץ (qets, end) in sound, not as a shared derivational root, so the basket itself rings with the word that follows.
ALSO GROWS
qatsats: To cut off or cut down.
קָצַץ
It gives the end the force of continuation being severed.
qēts: End or limit.
קֵץ
This is the word the LORD speaks after the basket is seen.
עָבַר
ʿāvar
GROWS FROM
עבר
Pass, cross, or go beyond.
The phrase translated “pass by” uses a verb of crossing or going over. The LORD’s statement makes the end more than a warning: he says he will no longer move past Israel.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass, cross, or go beyond.
עָבַר
This is the verb behind “pass by” in the verse.
ʿēver: The other side or beyond.
עֵבֶר
The noun preserves the root’s sense of crossing to what lies beyond.
maʿavar: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
It shows the same root naming the way across as well as the act of crossing.
THE PATTERN
When ripeness reaches its limit, harvest imagery can announce that judgment is due.
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.Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.THE THREAD
Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.Ezekiel repeats קֵץ (qēts, end) as the limit reaching the land’s four corners. Beside Amos’s sound-echo between summer fruit and the end, the repeated word makes the boundary feel reached, not indefinite.
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