Amos 1 · Verse 3

Amos 1:3

Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:

Amos 1:3, King James Version

Amos 1:3 in other translations

BSB	This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron.
WEB	The LORD says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;
ASV	Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
YLT	And thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their threshing Gilead with sharp-pointed irons,
DARBY	Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke my sentence, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
BBE	These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments.
Webster	Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:

What does Amos 1:3 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

3. Here begins a series of threatenings of vengeance against six other states, followed by one against Judah, and ending with one against Israel, with whom the rest of the prophecy is occupied. The eight predictions are in symmetrical stanzas, each prefaced by "Thus saith the Lord." Beginning with the sin of others, which Israel would be ready enough to recognize, he proceeds to bring home to Israel her own guilt. Israel must not think hereafter, because she sees others visited similarly to herself, that such judgments are matters of chance; nay, they are divinely foreseen and foreordered, and are confirmations of the truth that God will not clear the guilty. If God spares not the nations that know not the truth, how much less Israel that sins wilfully (Lu 12:47, 48; Jas 4:17)! for three transgressions ... and for four--If Damascus had only sinned once or twice, I would have spared them, but since, after having been so often pardoned, they still persevere so continually, I will no longer "turn away" their punishment. The Hebrew is simply, "I will not reverse it," namely, the sentence of punishment which follows; the negative expression implies more than it expresses; that is, "I will most surely execute it"; God's fulfilment of His threats being more awful than human language can express. "Three and four" imply sin multiplied on sin (compare Ex 20:5; Pr 30:15, 18, 21; "six and seven," Job 5:19; "once and twice," Job 33:14; "twice and thrice," Margin; "oftentimes," English Version, Job 33:29; "seven and also eight," Ec 11:2). There may be also a reference to seven, the product of three and four added; seven expressing the full completion of the measure of their guilt (Le 26:18, 21, 24; compare Mt 23:32). threshed--the very term used of the Syrian king Hazael's oppression of Israel under Jehu and Jehoahaz (2Ki 10:32, 33; 13:7). The victims were thrown before the threshing sledges, the teeth of which tore their bodies. So David to Ammon (2Sa 12:31; compare Is 28:27).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 3 For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four - These expressions of three and four, so often repeated in this chapter, mean repetition, abundance, and any thing that goes towards excess. Very, very exceedingly; and so it was used among the ancient Greek and Latin poets. See the passionate exclamation of Ulysses, in the storm, Odyss., lib. v., ver. 306: - Τρις μακαρες Δαναοι και τετρακις, οἱ τοτ' ολοντο Τροιῃ εν ευρειῃ, χαριν Ατρειδῃσι φεροντες. "Thrice happy Greeks! and four times who were slain In Atreus' cause, upon the Trojan plain." Which words Virgil translates, and puts in the mouth of his hero in similar circumstances, Aen. 1:93. Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra: Ingemit; et, duplicis tendens ad sidera palmas, Talia voce refert: O terque quaterque beatif Queis ante ora patrum Trojae sub moenibus altis Contigit oppetere. "Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief With lifted hands and eyes invokes relief. And thrice, and four times happy those, he cried, That under Ilion's walls before their parents died." Dryden. On the words, O terque quaterque, Servius makes this remark, "Hoc est saepias; finitus numerous pro infinito." "O thrice and four times, that is, very often, a finite number for an infinite." Other poets use the same form of expression. So Seneca in Hippolyt., Act. 2:694. O ter quaterque prospero fato dati, Quos hausit, et peremit, et leto dedit Odium dolusque! "O thrice and four times happy were the men Whom hate devoured, and fraud, hard pressing on, Gave as a prey to death." And so the ancient oracle quoted by Pausanias Achaic., lib. vii., c. 6: Τρις μακαρες κεινοι και τετρακις ανδρες εσνται; "Those men shall be thrice and four times happy." These quotations are sufficient to show that this form of speech is neither unfrequent nor inelegant, being employed by the most correct writers of antiquity. Damascus was the capital of Syria.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Amos 1:1-15

Judgments against the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, and Ammonites. --GOD employed a shepherd, a herdsman, to reprove and warn the people. Those to whom God gives abilities for his services, ought not to be despised for their origin, or their employment. Judgments are denounced against the neighbouring nations, the oppressors of God's people. The number of transgressions does not here mean that exact…

Read the full comment on Amos 1:1-15 →

Amos 1:3 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כֹּ֚הkohthusH3541

אָמַ֣ר'a.Marhe saysH559

יְהוָ֔הYah.wehYahwehH3068

עַל\־'al-onH5921

שְׁלֹשָׁה֙she.lo.ShahthreeH7969

פִּשְׁעֵ֣יpish.'Ei<the> transgressions ofH6588

דַמֶּ֔שֶׂקda.Me.sekDamascusH1834

וְעַל\־ve.'al-and onH5921

אַרְבָּעָ֖ה'ar.ba.'AhfourH702

לֹ֣אlo'notH3808

אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ'a.shi.Ve.nuI will revoke itH7725

עַל\־'al-becauseH5921

דּוּשָׁ֛םdu.Shamthreshed theyH1758

בַּחֲרֻצ֥וֹתba.cha.ru.Tzotwith [the] threshing sledges ofH2742

הַבַּרְזֶ֖לha.bar.Zel<the> ironH1270

אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853

הַגִּלְעָֽד\׃ha.gil.'Ad<the> GileadH1568

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Amos 1:3

2 Kings 10:32-33
In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
Isaiah 8:4
For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.
Jeremiah 49:23-27
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. …
Amos 2:6
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
2 Kings 8:12
And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
Amos 1:9
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
Isaiah 17:1-3
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 9:1
The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord.
Amos 1:6
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:
Amos 2:1
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
Amos 1:13
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
Amos 2:4
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

For.
6,9,11,13; 2:1,4,6; Job 5:19; 19:3; Pr 6:16; Ec 11:2
Damascus.
Isa 7:8; 8:4; 17:1; Jer 49:23-27; Zec 9:1
and for four. or, yea, for four. turn away the punishmentthereof. or, convert it, or, let it be quiet, and so.
6,9-2:16
because.
1Ki 19:17; 2Ki 8:12; 10:32,33; 13:3,7; Isa 41:15

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Amos 1:2
And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Amos 1:3
Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
Amos 1:4
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben–hadad.

Read all of Amos 1

Amos 1:3 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Así ha dicho Jehová: Por tres pecados de Damasco, y por el cuarto, no desviaré su castigo; porque trillaron á Galaad con trillos de hierro.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Ainsi dit l’ Éternel: À cause de trois transgressions de Damas, et à cause de quatre, je ne révoquerai pas mon arrêt; parce qu’ils ont foulé Galaad avec des traîneaux de fer.
German Elberfelder 1871	So spricht Jehova: Wegen drei Freveltaten von Damaskus und wegen vier werde ich es nicht rückgängig machen: Weil sie Gilead mit eisernen Dreschschlitten gedroschen haben,
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Hæc dicit Dominus: Super tribus sceleribus Damasci, et super quatuor non convertam eum, eo quod trituraverint in plaustris ferreis Galaad.