Amos 1:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 1:11
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
three
שְׁלֹשָׁה֙she.lo.Shah
H7969
three · noun, common both genders singular absolute
transgressions
פִּשְׁעֵ֣יpish.'Ei
H6588
a revolt (national · noun, common masculine plural construct
Edom
אֱד֔וֹם'e.Dom
H123
Edom · proper noun, a man's name
four
אַרְבָּעָ֖ה'ar.ba.'Ah
H702
four · noun, common both genders singular absolute
away
אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ'a.shi.Ve.nu
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
pursue
רָדְפ֨וֹra.de.Fo
H7291
to run after (usually with hostile intent · verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
brother
אָחִיו֙'a.Chiv
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
sword
בַחֶ֤רֶבva.Che.rev
H2719
drought · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
off
וְשִׁחֵ֣תve.shi.Chet
H7843
to decay · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
pity
רַחֲמָ֔יוra.cha.Mav
H7356
compassion (in the plural) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
anger
אַפּ֔וֹ'a.Po
H639
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
tear
וַיִּטְרֹ֤ףvai.yit.Rof
H2963
to pluck off or pull to pieces · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
perpetually
לָעַד֙la.'Ad
H5703
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
kept
שְׁמָ֥רָהshe.Ma.rah
H8104
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
wrath
וְעֶבְרָת֖וֹve.'ev.ra.To
H5678
an outburst of passion · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
ever
נֶֽצַחNe.tzach
H5331
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 25:12-14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenge…
Numbers 20:14-21 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen…
2 Chronicles 28:17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
Joel 3:19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed…
Malachi 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, b…
Psalms 137:7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
Jeremiah 49:7-22 Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
Ezekiel 35:1-15 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 1:3–end
What the Lord says here may be explained by what he says Jer 12:14, Thus said the Lord, against all my evil neighbours that touch the inheritance of my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them out. Damascus was a near neighbour to Israel on the north, Tyre and Gaza on the west, Edom on the south, Ammon and (in the next chapter) Moab on the east; and all of them had been, one time, one way, or other, pricking briers and grieving thorns to Israel, evil neighbours to them; and, because God espouses his people's cause, he there calls them his evil neighbours, and here comes forth to reckon with them. The method is taken in dealing with each of them is, in part, the same, and therefore we put the…
Edom . . . did pursue his brother-- (Isa 34:5). The chief aggravation to Edom's violence against Israel was that they both came from the same parents, Isaac and Rebekah (compare Gen 25:24-26; Deu 23:7-8; Oba 1:10, Oba 1:12; Mal 1:2).
cast off all pity--literally, "destroy compassions," that is, did suppress all the natural feeling of pity for a brother in distress.
his wrath for ever--As Esau kept up his grudge against Jacob, for having twice supplanted him, namely, as to the birthright and the blessing (Gen 27:41), so Esau's posterity against Israel (Num 20:14, Num 20:21). Edom first showed his spite in not letting Israel pass through his borders when coming from the wilderness, but thr…
For three transgressions of Edom - That the Edomites (notwithstanding what Calmet observes above of the brotherly covenant) were always implacable enemies of the Jews, is well known; but most probably that which the prophet has in view was the part they took in distressing the Jews when Jerusalem was besieged, and finally taken, by the Chaldeans. See Oba 1:11-14; Eze 25:12; Eze 35:5; Psa 137:7.
John Gill on Amos 1:11
The Church Fathers
In all places the Scriptures call Esau cunning and crafty, and one who layeth up anger, and keepeth wrath, as it is said, "He keepeth his anger for ever, and he layeth up his wrath for ever and ever."
(Ver. 11 and following) Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke my judgment; Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and violated all pity, and his anger tore at them constantly, and he kept his wrath to the end. I will send fire into Teman, and it will consume the fortresses of Bozrah. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away from them, because he pursued his brother with the sword and violated the womb above the earth, and seized his horror as a testimony, and kept his fury forever. And I will send fire into Teman, and it will consume the foundations of its walls. Edom himself is the same as Esau, so named because of the cooking of red lentils, whose birthright he lost with this nourishment: he is also called Seir, hairy and rough. Hence the mountains of the Edomites are called the mountains of Seir, and in Greek language Edom is called Idumea. This one pursued his brother with a sword, namely the sons of Jacob, concerning whom it is written more fully in the blessings of Isaac, to whom Jacob was blessed first, and afterwards Esau: so that the hatred of the brothers might be preserved in their descendants, and the Idumean people would persecute their brothers to such an extent that they would not even grant passage through the holy land to those leaving Egypt; and not only did he persecute his brother with a sword, but he violated mercy, or rather according to Symmachus' interpretation, his own womb: so that he would forget his kinship, and harden the bowels of mercy, and would not know that he was his brother, and would despise the womb of Rebekah, who had given birth to twin infants in one childbirth. And what follows: And he held on to his fury, and kept his indignation until the end, he shows his ancient hatred, which was never reconciled with peace. Therefore, he threatens punishment for sins, and he said: I will send fire into Theman, which is the region of the Edomites, and it extends to the southern part, which is called Theman: this province is called not only Theman, but also Daron and Nageb, because it faces the east, south, and the African wind. And when he says, 'He shall devour the houses of Bozrah,' it does not mean, as some suppose, another city, but Edom, fortified and well-fortified, according to what we read in Isaiah: 'Who is this that comes from…
Dictionary and topics
Edom — (1.) The name of Esau (q.v.), Gen. 25:30, “Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage [Heb. haadom, haadom, i.e., ‘the red pottage, the red pottage’] ...Therefore was his name called Edom”,…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Anger · 7:16; — 7:16;
Edomites · Join Babylon in war against the Israelites — Join Babylon in war against the Israelites
Edomites, The · Predictions respecting: Punishment for persecuting Israel — Predictions respecting: Punishment for persecuting Israel
Hatred · Punishment of — Punishment of
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Revenge · Punishment for — Punishment for
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom,.... Or the Edomites, the posterity of Esau, whose name was Edom, so called from the red pottage he sold his birthright for to his brother Jacob:
and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; See Gill on Amos 1:3. Among these three or four transgressions, not only what follows is included, but their idolatry; for that the Edomites had their idols is certain, though what they were cannot be said; see 2 Chronicles 25:14;
because he did pursue his brother with the sword: not Esau his brother Jacob; for though he purposed in his heart to slay him, which obliged him to flee; and frightened him, upon his return, by meeting him wit…
Amos 1:11-12
11. Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:
11. Sic dicit Jehova, Super tribus sceleribus Edom et super quatuor non ero ei propitius, quia persequutus est gladio fratrem suum, et violavit misericordias suas, et diripuit in seculum ira ejus, et indignationem servavit perpetuo:
12. But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
12. Et mittam ignem in Theman, qui comedet palatia Bozrah.
The Prophet now passes to the Idumeans themsel…
Edom. - Amo 1:11. "Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I shall not reverse it, because it pursues its brother with the sword, and stifles its compassion, and its anger tears in pieces for ever, and it keeps its wrath for ever, Amo 1:12. I send fire into Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah." Edom and the two following nations were related to Israel by lineal descent. In the case of Edom, Amos does not condemn any particular sins, but simply its implacable, mortal hatred towards its brother nation Israel, which broke out into acts of cruelty at every possible opportunity. ושׁחת רחמיו, he annihilates, i.e., suppresses, stifles his sympathy or his comp…
Edom was another betrayer (see 1:9; Gen 36; see also Gen 25:23-30; 27:39-40). • The NLT adds the Israelites to make explicit what relatives (literally brother) means (see Gen 25:25-30). “Brothers” can also refer to parties to a treaty (see Amos 1:9). Apparently Edom exerted constant pressure on the borders of Israel and Judah, raiding and plundering at moments of weakness (Jer 49:7-22; Obad 1:1-9).
Rashi on Amos 1:11
for pursuing their brother with a sword—As it is said: (Num. 20:18) “Lest I go forth against you with the sword.” And he still clings to his anger, keeps his wrath, and has not retracted it.
and grasped forever their anger—He clung to it and did not let it go.