Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? For he is 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.
- BSB Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”
- NKJV Then I said: “O Lord God, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may 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 85:4Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.
- Isa 10:25For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”
- Isa 1:9Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.
- Jer 30:19Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.
- Amos 7:2–3When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”
- Joel 2:17Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. 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
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.