Amos 5 · Verse 1

Amos 5:1

Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
Amos 5:1, King James Version

Amos 5:1 in other translations

BSBHear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
WEBListen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
ASVHear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
YLTHear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel:
DARBYHear this word, a lamentation, which I take up against you, O house of Israel.
BBEGive ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O children of Israel.
WebsterHear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

What does Amos 5:1 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

Am 5:1-27. Elegy over the Prostrate Kingdom: Renewed Exhortations to Repentance: God Declares that the Coming Day of Judgment Shall Be Terrible to the Scorners Who Despise It: Ceremonial Services Are Not Acceptable to Him Where True Piety Exists Not: Israel Shall Therefore Be Removed Far Eastward.

1. lamentation--an elegy for the destruction coming on you. Compare Eze 32:2, "take up," namely, as a mournful burden (Eze 19:1; 27:2).

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Introduction

This chapter opens with a tender and pathetic lamentation, in the style of a funeral song, over the house of Israel, Amo 5:1, Amo 5:2. The prophet then glances at the awful threatening denounced against them, Amo 5:3; earnestly exhorting them to renounce their idols, and seek Jehovah, of whom he gives a very magnificent description, Amo 5:4-9. He then reproves their injustice and oppression with great warmth and indignation; exhorts them again to repentance; and enforces his exhortation with the most awful threatenings, delivered with great majesty and authority, and in images full of beauty and grandeur, Amo 5:10-24. The chapter concludes with observing that their idolatry was of long standing, that they increased the national guilt, by adding to the sins of their fathers; and that their punishment, therefore, should be great in proportion, Amo 5:25-27. Formerly numbers of them were brought captive to Damascus, 2Kgs 10:32, 2Kgs 10:33; but now they must go beyond it to Assyria, 2Kgs 15:29; 2Kgs 17:6. Verse 1 Hear ye this word - Attend to this doleful song which I make for the house of Israel.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Amos 5:1-6
The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; for whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect. The Lord still proclaims mercy to men, but they often expect deliverance from such self-invented forms as make their condemnation sure. While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by him, that they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon them. Men may make an idol of the world, but will find it cannot protect.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Amos 5:1 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.

שִׁמְע֞וּshim.'UhearH8085
אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853
הַדָּבָ֣רha.da.Varthe wordH1697
הַזֶּ֗הha.Zeh<the> thisH2088
אֲשֶׁ֨ר'a.SherwhichH834
אָנֹכִ֜י'a.no.KhiIH595
נֹשֵׂ֧אno.Se'[am] lifting upH5375
עֲלֵיכֶ֛ם'a.lei.Khemon youH5921
קִינָ֖הki.Naha lamentationH7015
בֵּ֥יתbeitO house ofH1004
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל\׃Yis.ra.'ElIsraelH3478

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

Cross references for Amos 5:1

  • Ezekiel 19:1

    Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

  • Jeremiah 9:17

    Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

  • Jeremiah 7:29

    Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

  • Jeremiah 9:10

    For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

  • Amos 3:1

    Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

  • Ezekiel 32:16

    This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord God.

  • Ezekiel 26:17

    And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!

  • Ezekiel 27:2

    Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;

  • Ezekiel 27:27-32

    Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin. The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots. And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land; And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: …

  • Amos 4:1

    Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

  • Ezekiel 32:2

    Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

  • Micah 2:4

    In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields.

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1 A lamentation for Israel.
4 An exhortation to repentance.
21 God rejects their hypocritical service.

Hear.
3:1; 4:1
I take.
16; Jer 7:29; 9:10,17,20; Eze 19:1,14; 26:17; 27:2,27-32; 28:12
Eze 32:2,16; Mic 2:4

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

Context

  • Amos 5:1

    Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

  • Amos 5:2

    The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

Read all of Amos 5

Amos 5:1 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
OID esta palabra, porque yo levanto endecha sobre vosotros, casa de Israel.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
*Écoutez cette parole, une complainte que j’élève sur vous, maison d’Israël!
German
Elberfelder 1871
Höret dieses Wort, das ich über euch erhebe, ein Klagelied, Haus Israel!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Audite verbum istud, quod ego levo super vos planctum: domus Israël cecidit, et non adjiciet ut resurgat.