Bible Strands
Amos 1:9
This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom and broke a covenant of brotherhood.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through the prophet Amos to announce judgment on Tyre, delivering this oracle immediately after pronouncing ruin on the Philistine cities.
The words — פִּשְׁעֵי (pish.'ei) = transgressions and צוֹר (Tzor) = Tyre anchor the charge that the city’s political alliances were violated.
The thread — The betrayal of exiles and broken brotherhood covenant recalls Solomon’s treaty with Hiram in 1 Kings 9:11, while the pronouncement of ruin on Tyre runs through Isaiah 23:1 and Joel 3:4.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that treaty-breaking and the betrayal of vulnerable people trigger divine judgment, requiring readers to treat political agreements as binding under divine oversight.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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:
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.
- Isaiah 23:1 This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.
- Joel 3:4 Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads.
- Zechariah 9:2 and also against Hamath, which borders it, as well as Tyre and Sidon, though they are very shrewd.
- 2 Samuel 5:11 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.
- 2 Chronicles 2:8 Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants have skill to cut timber there. And indeed, my servants will work with yours
- Ezekiel 26:1 In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- 1 Kings 5:1 Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.
- Jeremiah 25:22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;
- Jeremiah 47:4 For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.