Bible Strands
Amos 9:11
“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Amos, a Judahite prophet sent to the northern kingdom, speaks this immediately after pronouncing death on the sinners among his audience (v.10). The promise targets David's dynasty specifically, binding the fate of Israel's judgment to the restoration of the southern house.
The words — סֻכָּה (sukkāh) literally means "booth," a temporary shelter, yet אָקִים ('āqîm) is the firm first-person future "I will raise up." The contrast between the flimsiness of the structure and the certainty of the divine verb is the verse's engine.
The thread — James cites this in Acts 15:15–17 to argue that Gentile inclusion is part of God's plan, not a departure from it. Isaiah 16:5 and Jeremiah 33:14 both echo the Davidic restoration motif.
Why it lands — The verse places a specific dynastic restoration inside a judgment oracle, forcing the reader to hold both together rather than reading the promise as a softener. It asks the reader to take "the fallen tent" at face value: a real political structure, fallen, and a real divine commitment to rebuild it.
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
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
Cross-references
- Acts 15:15 The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:
- Jeremiah 33:14 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the gracious promise that I have spoken to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
- Isaiah 16:5 in loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness.
- Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
- Psalms 80:12 Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
- Isaiah 63:11 Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,
- Jeremiah 46:26 I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the LORD.
- Ezekiel 17:24 Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it.’”
- Hosea 3:5 Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.
- Job 1:10 Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.