Bible Strands
Amos 7:4
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Amos recounts a vision given by Yahweh to him, positioned immediately after God relents from the locust plague in Amos 7:3 and before Amos pleads for Jacob’s survival in Amos 7:5.
The words — The vision hinges on קֹרֵא (ko.Re'), meaning "[was] calling," coupled with לָ/רִ֥ב (la./Riv), "for conducting a case," executed through בָּ/אֵ֖שׁ (ba./'Esh), "by fire."
The thread — Divine judgment by fire reappears in Isaiah 66:15, where the Lord executes anger with fiery chariots, and parallels the destructive atmospheric phenomena of Exodus 9:23 that follow the locust vision in Amos 7:1.
Why it lands — The text records Yahweh demonstrating sovereign control over destructive forces, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment operates independently of human survival calculations before any intercession occurs.
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 hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 66:15 For behold, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.
- Amos 7:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.
- Exodus 9:23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.
- Leviticus 10:2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD.
- Numbers 16:35 And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
- Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Isaiah 27:4 I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.
- Jeremiah 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
- Jeremiah 21:12 O house of David, this is what the LORD says: ‘Administer justice every morning, and rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor, or My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of their evil deeds.
- Joel 2:30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.