What Does Amos 9:11 Mean in the King James?
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
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 beloved shelter is restored by closing its breaches and raising its ruins.
THE MEANING
David (דָּוִד, Dāwīd, “beloved”) gives the fallen shelter a name shaped by belovedness. The verse speaks now of restoration that closes openings, raises ruins, and rebuilds a shelter with a remembered shape. Its repair reaches the places where the structure broke.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what has fallen is beyond repair dissolves here: the verse names breaches to close and ruins to raise.
THE ROOT
סֻכַּת
sukkat
GROWS FROM
סכך
s-k-k
Cover, shelter, screen over.
The word translated “tabernacle” is סֻכָּה (sukkah, booth or shelter), a covering place. The image is of a fallen shelter being restored as a place that covers and shelters again.
ALSO GROWS
sākhakh: Cover, screen over
סָכַךְ
The covering action behind the shelter makes its restoration concrete: what once sheltered is made sheltering again.
masakh: Screen, curtain
מָסָךְ
This branch is also a covering or barrier, echoing the enclosing structure that is rebuilt.
אָקִים
ʾāqîm
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand, remain standing.
The same form אָקִים (ʾāqîm, I will raise up) appears twice: first for David’s fallen shelter and again for its ruins. Restoration here is repeated re-standing, reaching both the whole structure and what remains broken within it.
ALSO GROWS
hēqîm: Establish, raise up
הֵקִים
This causative form makes something stand, the same movement Amos names for the fallen shelter and its ruins.
maqom: Place
מָקוֹם
This noun comes from the same root of standing; the raised shelter becomes a place that can stand again.
פִּרְצֵיהֶן
pirṣehen
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ts
Break through, burst open.
“breaches” in this verse is pirṣehen. A breach is an opening made by breaking through, not just an empty space. The verse pairs that rupture with the act of closing it, naming repair as a direct answer to where the structure gave way.
ALSO GROWS
pāraṣ: Break through, burst out
פָּרַץ
This verb reveals the force behind a breach: an enclosure has been broken open.
pōrēṣ: Breaker, one who breaks through
פֹּרֵץ
Micah uses this form for the one who breaks open a way; Amos’s breaches mark openings that now need to be closed.
THE PATTERN
Restoration rebuilds the shelter by repairing its breach and raising what has fallen.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:THE THREAD
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.Isaiah’s “breach” is פֶּרֶץ (perets, breach), from the root פָּרַץ (pāraṣ, break through), the same root as Amos’s “breaches.” Isaiah names the repair of that rupture directly, showing how restoration meets the specific place where the shelter has broken open.
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