ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Amos 4.13

Book: Amos · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

11. I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought; that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, Jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name. (Amos 4:11-13, ASV)

WEB

11. “I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 12. “Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.

13. For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.” (Amos 4:11-13, WEB)

KJV

11. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name. wind: or, spirit (Amos 4:11-13, KJV)

YLT

11. I have overturned among you, Like the overturn by God of Sodom and Gomorrah, And ye are as a brand delivered from a burning, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah. 12. Therefore, thus I do to thee, O Israel, at last, Because this I do to thee, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13. For, lo, the former of mountains, and creator of wind, And the declarer to man what [is] His thought, He is making dawn obscurity, And is treading on high places of earth, Jehovah, God of Hosts, [is] His name! (Amos 4:11-13, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Amos of Tekoa, a herdsman (noqed, sheep breeder) and tender of sycamore figs from Judah, speaking the word of the LORD.
  • Audience: The northern kingdom of Israel, addressed at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II.
  • Location: Delivered in the northern kingdom, principally at Bethel, the royal sanctuary and state temple (Amos 7:13).
  • Time period: c. 760-750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Amos is generally reckoned the earliest of the writing prophets.

Theological reading

The first of the three hymnic doxologies that punctuate the book (4:13; 5:8-9; 9:5-6), each closing with a form of the divine name. Their function is structural: after an oracle of judgment, a hymn establishes who is doing the judging.

Five participles in a row. He forms the mountains, creates the wind, declares to man what is his thought, makes the morning darkness, treads on the high places of the earth. The participial chain is creation-hymn style, comparable to Job 9:5-10 and Isaiah 40:22-26, and it grounds the coming judgment in the Creator's standing rather than in a national deity's temper.

"Declares to man what is his thought." The third participle is the one most often noticed, because it puts divine knowledge of the human interior alongside the forming of mountains as an act of the same order. The Hebrew seach is inner speech or musing. The claim is not merely that God knows what a person is thinking but that He tells him, which makes the prophetic word itself an instance of the attribute. Compare Psalm 139:2, "You understand my thought from afar", and Jeremiah 17:10.

"The LORD, the God of hosts, is His name." The doxology closes with YHWH Elohei-tzeva'ot (H6635 - tzevaot), the title of command. The judgment announced in the preceding verse is not a local grievance; it comes from the one who made the wind.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.