Amos 5:3

This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will have but a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The Lord Yahweh speaks through the prophet to the house of Israel, delivering a pronouncement of catastrophic loss immediately following the declaration of the nation’s fallen state.

The words — כִּ֣י (ki) means “for,” and אֶ֖לֶף ('E.lef) means “a thousand,” anchoring the divine statement that a city dispatching a thousand fighters will return with only a hundred.

The thread — This theme of severe numerical reduction appears in Isaiah 6:13, where a tenth remains in the land before being burned, and Isaiah 10:22, which states that only a remnant of Israel’s vast population will return.

Why it lands — The text records an inevitable military collapse that strips away national security, requiring the reader to acknowledge the certainty of judgment before turning to the adjacent command to seek God and live.

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

כִּ֣יkifor כֹ֤הkhohthus אָמַר֙'a.Marhe says אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai[the] Lord יְהוִ֔הYah.wehYahweh הָעִ֛ירha./'Irthe/ city הַיֹּצֵ֥אתhai./yo.Tzetwhich/ goes out אֶ֖לֶף'E.lefa thousand תַּשְׁאִ֣ירtash.'Irit will have left מֵאָ֑הme.'Aha hundred וְהַיּוֹצֵ֥אתve./hai./yo.Tzetand/ which/ goes out מֵאָ֛הme.'Aha hundred תַּשְׁאִ֥ירtash.'Irit will have left עֲשָׂרָ֖ה'a.sa.Rahten לְבֵ֥יתle./Veitof/ [the] house of יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ סYis.ra.'ElIsrael

King James Version

For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

Cross-references

Isaiah 6:13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”
Isaiah 10:22 Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
Ezekiel 12:16 But I will spare a few of them from sword and famine and plague, so that in the nations to which they go, they can recount all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Romans 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
Deuteronomy 4:27 Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
Deuteronomy 28:62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Isaiah 1:9 Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
Amos 6:9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.