Passage

Amos 8.14

Book: Amos · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

12. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.

14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again. (Amos 8:12-14, ASV)

WEB

12. They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word, and will not find it. 13. In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.

14. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again.” (Amos 8:12-14, WEB)

KJV

12. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again. ^{manner: Heb. way} (Amos 8:12-14, KJV)

YLT

12. And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find. 13. In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst.

14. Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen, and rise not again!' (Amos 8:12-14, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

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 closing verse of the fourth vision's oracle, naming the three loyalties that will fail.

Three oaths, three shrines. "Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, who say, As your god lives, O Dan, and, As the way of Beersheba lives." Dan and Bethel held the two golden calves installed by Jeroboam I (1 Kings 12:28-30), Beersheba was the far-southern pilgrimage site named earlier at Amos 5:5, and "the guilt of Samaria" (ashmat Shomron) most likely refers to the cult object or shrine of the capital itself. Swearing by a deity was the strongest available act of allegiance, since an oath stakes one's life on the god invoked.

"The way of Beersheba." Derek here probably means the pilgrimage route or the cultic practice associated with the site, rather than a road. The phrase is unusual enough that some translations render it "the way of your beloved one", following a different vocalization; the pilgrimage reading is the majority one.

The sentence. "They will fall and not rise again." The verb pairs with Amos 5:2, the dirge over a fallen virgin Israel with none to raise her, and stands in deliberate tension with Amos 9:11, where God raises the fallen booth of David. What Israel swore by cannot get up; what God promises to raise, He raises.

The context. The preceding verses describe a famine "not for bread nor a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD" (Amos 8:11), people staggering from sea to sea to seek it and not finding it. The oaths of verse 14 are what they had instead.

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.

H2416 - chay, chay, Strong's H2416
H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430

Quoted in

Lexicon:

H2416 - chay

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.