Amos 5:16

Amos 5:16 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
• New International Version (NIV)Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.
• English Standard Version (ESV)Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: "In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, 'Alas! Alas!' They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
• New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, says this: “There shall be wailing in all streets, And they shall say in all the highways, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmer to mourning, And skillful lamenters to wailing.

Context of Amos 5:16

14Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is. 15Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote justice at the city gate! Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph. Because of Israel’s sins this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. 17In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord. 18Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.

Amos 5:16 word by word

לָ֠כֵן כֹּֽה־אָמַ֨ר יְהוָ֜ה אֱלֹהֵ֤י צְבָאוֹת֙ אֲדֹנָ֔י בְּכָל־רְחֹב֣וֹת מִסְפֵּ֔ד וּבְכָל־חוּצ֖וֹת יֹאמְר֣וּ הוֹ־ה֑וֹ וְקָרְא֤וּ אִכָּר֙ אֶל־אֵ֔בֶל וּמִסְפֵּ֖ד אֶל־י֥וֹדְעֵי נֶֽהִי׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Therefore the Lordיְהֹוָהyehôvâh · LORDH3068
• the Godאֱלֹהִים'ĕlôhîym · GodH430
• of hostsצָבָאtsâbâ' tsebâ'âh · HostsH6635
• the Lordאֲדֹנָי'ădônây · LordH136
• saithאָמַר'âmar · to sayH559
• thus; Wailingמִסְפֵּדmispêd · mourningH4553
• in all streetsרְחוֹבrechôb rechôb · street/plazaH7339
• in all the highwaysחוּץchûts chûts · outsideH2351
• Alasהוֹhô · Ah!H1930
• and they shall callקָרָאqârâ' · to call: call outH7121
• the husbandmanאִכָּר'ikkâr · farmerH406
• to mourningאֵ֫בֶל'êbel · mourningH60
• and such as are skilfulיָדַעyâda‛ · to knowH3045
• of lamentationנְהִיnehîy · wailingH5092

Cross-references for Amos 5:16

• Amos 5:27and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord. He is called the God who commands armies!
• Amos 3:13Listen and warn the family of Jacob! The sovereign Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking!
• Amos 8:10I will turn your festivals into funerals, and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes and cause every head to be shaved bald. I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day.
• Isaiah 15:2They went up to the temple, the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off.
• Isaiah 22:12At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth.
• Jeremiah 4:31In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, “I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”
• Jeremiah 9:10I said, “I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains, I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”
• Joel 1:8Wail like a young virgin clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of her husband-to-be.
• Micah 1:8For this reason I will mourn and wail; I will walk around barefoot and without my outer garments. I will howl like a wild dog, and screech like an owl.
• Micah 2:4In that day people will sing this taunt song to you – they will mock you with this lament: ‘We are completely destroyed; they sell off the property of my people. How they remove it from me! They assign our fields to the conqueror.’
• Revelation 18:10They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say, “Woe, woe, O great city, Babylon the powerful city! For in a single hour your doom has come!”
• Jeremiah 9:17The Lord who rules over all told me to say to this people, “Take note of what I say. Call for the women who mourn for the dead! Summon those who are the most skilled at it!”

Commentaries on Amos 5:16

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16They shall call the husbandman to mourning - Because the crops have failed, and the ground has been tilled in vain. Such as are skillful of lamentation - See the note on Jeremiah 9:17.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16Therefore the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord - For the third time in these three last verses Amos again reminds them, by whose authority he speaks, His who had revealed Himself as “I am,” the self-existent God, God by nature and of nature, the Creator and Ruler and Lord of all, visible or invisible, against their false gods, or fictitious substitutes for the true God. Here, over and above those titles, “He is,” that is, He alone is, the “God of Hosts…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-17Verses 7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 16The farmer … and the mourners: This expression vividly describes widespread grief. It means that everyone would mourn, from ordinary workers like farmers to people whose job was to mourn at funerals.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1616. Therefore--resumed from Am 5:13. God foresees they will not obey the exhortation (Am 5:14, 15), but will persevere in the unrighteousness stigmatized (Am 5:7, 10, 12). the Lord--Jehovah. the God of hosts, the Lord--an accumulation of titles, of which His lordship over all things is the climax, to mark that from His judgment there is no appeal. streets ... highways--the broad open spaces and the narrow streets common in the East. call the husbandman to…Read the comment

Topics related to Amos 5:16

• Famine
• Judgments
• Weeping

In the dictionaries

• God
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Manifold
• Seek
• Burial
• Groan
• Husbandman; Husbandry
• Mourning

Commentaries on Amos 5

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings