What Does Amos 8:7 Mean in the King James?
The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
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
God’s oath makes the deeds of those exploiting the poor impossible to erase.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the moment when harmful acts seem to pass without account: they remain remembered before God. The oath makes time and public standing powerless to erase what has been done.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that time, power, or public honor can erase the record of harm.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁבַּע
nishbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
שׁבע (shavaʿ): swear, take an oath; the same consonants also form the word for seven.
“sworn” in this verse is nishbaʿ. The oath verb shares its consonants with שֶׁבַע (shevaʿ, “seven”), a sound-link that associates the oath with a full measure. The verse presents God’s words as a binding commitment that the deeds will not disappear from account.
ALSO GROWS
shevuʿah: oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun names the oath itself, the binding declaration expressed by “hath sworn.”
mashbiaʿ: one who adjures or puts someone under oath
מַשְׁבִּיעַ
This form shows the root in an act that binds someone to an oath.
shevaʿ: seven
שֶׁבַע
The shared consonants connect the oath word-family with seven, a number associated with fullness.
אֶשְׁכַּח
eshkaḥ
GROWS FROM
שכח
שכח (shakhaḥ): forget, lose from awareness.
“forget” in this verse is eshkaḥ. The oath directly denies erasure: the deeds do not slip out of God’s awareness. Forms from this root can describe causing something to be forgotten or something being forgotten, bringing concealment and its result into view.
ALSO GROWS
hishkiaḥ: cause to forget
הִשְׁכִּיחַ
This form shows forgetting as something that can be brought about, the very erasure the oath rules out.
nishkaḥ: forgotten
נִשְׁכָּח
This form names the state the deeds never enter: they are not forgotten.
מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם
maʿaseihem
GROWS FROM
עשה
עשה (ʿasah): do, make.
The word for “works” grows from the verb for doing and making. The oath reaches the concrete actions themselves, what these people enact, not merely their reputation or what they claim to intend.
ALSO GROWS
ʿasah: he did, made
עָשָׂה
The verb names the action at the root of the “works” in the verse.
ʿoseh: one who does, makes
עֹשֶׂה
This form brings the doer into view alongside the deeds that remain remembered.
THE PATTERN
No act of oppression disappears from God’s sight; what is done remains answerable.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.Amos uses the same Hebrew verb נִשְׁבַּע (nishbaʿ, “has sworn”) in both verses. In 4:2 the oath announces coming consequences; here it binds God’s word that the deeds will not be forgotten.
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