So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
- KJV Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
- BSB Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
- NKJV Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
- NASB Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.
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
Because of their idolatry, God will send Israel into exile beyond Damascus. The sovereign 'God of Armies' guarantees this judgment will come to pass.
Overview
Exile 'beyond Damascus' points to deportation by Assyria, fulfilled when the northern kingdom fell in 722 BC. The certainty rests on God's own name and power as commander of heaven's armies. Even this severe judgment serves God's larger purposes, preserving a remnant through whom his redemptive plan in Christ would continue.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- 2 Kgs 17:6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
- Acts 7:43You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
- Amos 4:13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”
- 2 Kgs 15:29In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 5:27 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.