Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”
- KJV Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
- NKJV Then I said: “O Lord God, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!”
- NASB Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”
- NLT Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
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
Again Amos begs the Lord to stop, pleading the smallness of Jacob. He once more intercedes to avert the coming ruin.
Overview
Amos repeats his appeal for mercy, this time asking God to 'stop' rather than forgive, as the fire already burns. His persistence in prayer reflects deep concern for his people's survival. Such bold, repeated intercession foreshadows the unceasing mediation of Christ, who ever lives to intercede for those he saves.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 85:4Restore us, O God of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
- Isa 10:25For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.”
- Isa 1:9Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
- Jer 30:19Thanksgiving will proceed from them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased; I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.
- Amos 7:2–3And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”
- Joel 2:17Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
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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 7:5 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
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