Amos 8:7
in Amos 8The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
KJV
The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
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This verse in Amos 8
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
By the excellency of Jacob - that is, by Himself who was its Glory, as Samuel calls Him “the Strength” 1Sa 15:29 or the Glory of Israel. Amos had before said, “God sware by His Holiness” and “by Himself” or “His soul.” Now, in like way, He pledges that Glory wherewith He was become the Glory of His people.
This site's exposition
the excellency of Jacob
on Amos 8:7-8
The Lord swears by the excellency of Jacob, the same phrase read at 6:8 of the pride he abhors, here used as the oath's own guarantee, surely I will never forget any of their works, the nation's pride turned into the witness against it. The land trembling and rising up wholly as a flood, cast out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt, reaches for the Nile's yearly rise as the nearest image of a whole land heaving, the bench reading the comparison as deliberate irony, the flood that fed Egypt's fields now pictures Israel's ruin.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 7, 8.) The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble concerning this, and every inhabitant mourn? And it shall rise up wholly like the River, and it shall be driven out and fall like the River of Egypt.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
I will never forget them is as much as to say, I will never forgive them; and then it proclaims the case of these unjust unmerciful men to be miserable indeed, eternally miserable; woe, and a thousand woes, to that man that is cut off by an oath of God from all benefit by pardoning mercy; and those have reason to fear judgment without mercy that have shown no mercy.
The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob,.... Not by the ark, as R.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob--that is, by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [MAURER]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [CALVIN], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare Am 6:8, where it means Jehovah's temple (compare Am 4:2). never forget--not pass by without punishing (Am 8:2;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
By the excellency of Jacob - By the state of eminence to which he had raised the descendants of Jacob; or, by the excellent One of Jacob, that is, Himself. The meaning is: “As surely as I have raised you to such a state of eminence, so surely will I punish you in proportion to your advantages and your crimes.”
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נִשְׁבַּ֥ע | nishba' | he has sworn | H7650 → | 186 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| בִּגְא֣וֹן | bigon | by [the] pride of | H1347 → | |
| יַעֲקֹ֑ב | yaako | Jacob | H3290 → | 350 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| אֶשְׁכַּ֥ח | ʾeshkach | I will forget | H7911 → | |
| לָנֶ֖צַח | lanetzach | to perpetuity | H5331 → | |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| מַעֲשֵׂיהֶֽם׃ | maaseihem | deeds their | H4639 → |
נִשְׁבַּ֥עhe has sworn
nishba'H7650 →186 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
בִּגְא֣וֹןby [the] pride of
bigonH1347 →
יַעֲקֹ֑בJacob
yaakoH3290 →350 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
אֶשְׁכַּ֥חI will forget
ʾeshkachH7911 →
לָנֶ֖צַחto perpetuity
lanetzachH5331 →
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
מַעֲשֵׂיהֶֽם׃deeds their
maaseihemH4639 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hosea 7:2But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 14:10
This is what the LORD says about this people: “Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their guilt and…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 12:2
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
- Jeremiah 14:10
Through
Hosea 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
it leads to
- Hosea 10:9
Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of iniquity?
- Judges 19:16
That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was residing in Gibeah (the men of that place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the field.
- Hosea 10:9
Through
Amos 6:8The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 51:14
The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”
- Amos 4:2
The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
- Psalms 47:4
He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom He loves. Selah
- Jeremiah 51:14
Through
Psalms 10:11He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
it leads to
- Ezekiel 8:12
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are…
- Ezekiel 8:12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Amos
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.