What Does Amos 9:1 Mean in the King James?
I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
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 altar is where the sentence begins, and the verse echoes the language of flight only to close every escape.
THE MEANING
The Lord stands at the altar; the command makes its structure shake and declares death for those who flee. The verse leaves no protected exit: the fugitive does not get away, and the escapee is not delivered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that sacred ground guarantees immunity or that flight guarantees safety: judgment reaches the altar, and the fugitive is not delivered.
THE ROOT
יִמָּלֵט
yimmālēṭ
GROWS FROM
מלט
To slip away or escape; in some forms, to cause someone to escape or deliver them.
“delivered” in this verse is yimmālēṭ. The line places יִמָּלֵט (yimmālēṭ, “escape”) beside פָּלִיט (pālîṭ, “fugitive”): their roots מלט (m-l-ṭ, “escape”) and פלט (p-l-ṭ, “escape”) are distinct but share ל־ט. That sound overlap binds the fugitive to the very possibility of escape, while the sentence denies both.
ALSO GROWS
mālaṭ: To escape or slip away.
מָלַט
This verb gives the sentence’s denial its basic action: there is no slipping out of the judgment.
nimlaṭ: To escape or get away; to be delivered.
נִמְלַט
This form shows how escape can also be expressed as deliverance, the very outcome the verse withholds.
יָנוּס
yānûs
GROWS FROM
נוּס
To flee or take flight.
“fleeth” in this verse is yānûs. The verse repeats this root in יָנוּס (yānûs, “he flees”) and נָס (nās, “one fleeing”). The same seed names both the person’s flight and the failed outcome, making the attempted escape turn back on itself.
ALSO GROWS
nās: One who is fleeing; a fugitive.
נָס
This form names the person whose flight the verse says will not succeed.
mānôs: Refuge, flight, or a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
The root can name refuge as well as flight; here the verse leaves no refuge in flight.
הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
hamizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew name for the altar grows from the root of slaughter and sacrifice. That seed gives the scene an added depth: the place of sacrifice is also where the command to strike is spoken and the sword’s killing is declared.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb carries the action embedded in the altar’s name.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
This noun shows the altar’s connection to the act and result of sacrifice.
THE PATTERN
Judgment reaches sacred ground itself; the sanctuary can be where it begins, not a place outside its reach.
Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?THE THREAD
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew noun סִפִּים (sippîm, “doorposts” or “thresholds”) that Amos uses for the posts shaken by the blow. In Isaiah they move at the calling voice; in Amos they shake under an announced strike, linking divine encounter with the shaking of the structure.
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