Bible Strands
Amos 5:1
Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Amos addresses the house of Israel at the opening of a formal dirge, immediately preceding the declaration of their irreversible downfall.
The words — The imperative שִׁמְעוּ (shim‘û) commands "hear," while the verb נֹשֵׂא (nōśēʾ) literally means "lifting up" or pronouncing the lamentation against the audience.
The thread — The act of raising a prophetic dirge appears in Ezekiel 19:1, Jeremiah 7:29, and Jeremiah 9:10, where each passage marks a formal pronouncement of mourning over covenant rejection.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate attention to a spoken judgment, requiring the reader to recognize that the coming desolation is not a future possibility but a declared reality.
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
Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 19:1 “As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel
- Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
- Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Jeremiah 9:17 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Jeremiah 9:20 Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament.
- Ezekiel 19:14 Fire has gone out from its main branch and devoured its fruit; on it no strong branch remains fit for a ruler’s scepter.’ This is a lament and shall be used as a lament.”
- Ezekiel 26:17 Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!
- Ezekiel 27:2 “Now you, son of man, take up a lament for Tyre.
- Ezekiel 27:27 Your wealth, wares, and merchandise, your sailors, captains, and shipwrights, your merchants and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.
- Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.