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“Behold, I am making a rut in the ground beneath you, Just as a wagon makes a rut when filled with sheaves.
Amos 2:13 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain.
  • KJV Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
  • BSB Behold, I am about to crush you in your place as with a cart full of grain.
  • NKJV “Behold,I am weighed down by you, As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.
  • NLT “So I will make you groan like a wagon loaded down with sheaves of grain.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God declares he will crush Israel as a loaded cart presses down. The weight of their sin brings inescapable judgment.

Overview

The image of a heavy, grain-laden cart conveys a crushing, grinding pressure upon the people. Some translate this as God being burdened by their sin; either way, judgment is heavy and certain. This begins a list of how no one will escape. The picture warns that persistent, unrepented sin leads to ruin under the hand of God.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 7

  • Isa 1:14My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
  • Mal 2:17You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
  • Ps 78:40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
  • Ezek 16:43“‘“Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord Yahweh: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
  • Isa 7:13He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?
  • Isa 43:24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.
  • Ezek 6:9Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Amos videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Amos 2:13YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on AmosMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.

How Amos 2:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.