The Meaning of Amos 8:10 Explained

Amos 8:10

KJV: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

YLT: And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head -- baldness, And made it as a mourning of an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

Darby: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

ASV: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

And I will turn  your feasts  into mourning,  and all your songs  into lamentation;  and I will bring up  sackcloth  upon all loins,  and baldness  upon every head;  and I will make  it as the mourning  of an only  [son], and the end  thereof as a bitter  day. 

What does Amos 8:10 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Then Yahweh would turn their festivals into funerals and their melodious singing into mourning. The people would wear sackcloth and shave their heads as signs of their grief. Mourning would come because judgment had come. It would be as sad a time as the death of an only son. The death of an only son meant the extinguishing of hope for the future and the losing of provision for one"s old age. The end of that day would be bitter indeed.

Context Summary

Amos 8:1-14 - The Worst Famine Of All
What is more fragile than summer fruit! So beautiful, so refreshing, yet so readily corrupted and diseased. To Amos it was an emblem of the rapidity with which dissolution would overtake his rebellious nation. The end had arrived. The Great Husbandman could do no more. When the harvest has come, separation between good and bad is inevitable. See Isaiah 5:4; Matthew 13:30.
The crimes of the ruling class were enormous. Eager to increase their stores, they wearied of time given to religion. They grudged passing a day without opening their salesrooms. They did not scruple to make their measures (ephah) small, and to demand a greater weight of money (shekel) from their clients. These were crimes that could not be passed over. It is an awful sentence when God says, "I will never forget," Amos 8:7. Invasion would sweep the land like an inundation. Since the people would not heed the God-sent messengers, they would be withdrawn. There would be a famine of the Word of God, and those who had most despised it, because enamored with the fascinations of youth, would be smitten with an insatiable appetite for it. [source]

Chapter Summary: Amos 8

1  By a basket of summer fruit is shown the approach of Israel's end
4  Oppression is reproved
11  A famine of the word of God threatened

What do the individual words in Amos 8:10 mean?

And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring on every waist sackcloth and on head baldness and I will make it like mourning for an only [son] and its end like a day bitter
וְהָפַכְתִּ֨י חַגֵּיכֶ֜ם לְאֵ֗בֶל וְכָל־ שִֽׁירֵיכֶם֙ לְקִינָ֔ה וְהַעֲלֵיתִ֤י עַל־ כָּל־ מָתְנַ֙יִם֙ שָׂ֔ק וְעַל־ רֹ֖אשׁ קָרְחָ֑ה וְשַׂמְתִּ֙יהָ֙ כְּאֵ֣בֶל יָחִ֔יד וְאַחֲרִיתָ֖הּ כְּי֥וֹם מָֽר

וְהָפַכְתִּ֨י  And  I  will  turn 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular
Root: הָפַךְ  
Sense: to turn, overthrow, overturn.
חַגֵּיכֶ֜ם  your  feasts 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine plural
Root: חַג  
Sense: festival, feast, festival-gathering, pilgrim-feast.
לְאֵ֗בֶל  into  mourning 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֵבֶל  
Sense: mourning.
וְכָל־  and  all 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: כֹּל  
Sense: all, the whole.
שִֽׁירֵיכֶם֙  your  songs 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine plural
Root: שִׁיר 
Sense: song.
לְקִינָ֔ה  into  lamentation 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, feminine singular
Root: קִינָה  
Sense: lamentation, dirge, elegy.
וְהַעֲלֵיתִ֤י  and  I  will  bring 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular
Root: סָלַק 
Sense: to go up, ascend, climb.
כָּל־  every 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: כֹּל  
Sense: all, the whole.
מָתְנַ֙יִם֙  waist 
Parse: Noun, md
Root: מָתְנַיִם  
Sense: loins, hips.
שָׂ֔ק  sackcloth 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: שַׂק  
Sense: mesh, sackcloth, sack, sacking.
וְעַל־  and  on 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Preposition
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
רֹ֖אשׁ  head 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: רֹאשׁ 
Sense: head, top, summit, upper part, chief, total, sum, height, front, beginning.
קָרְחָ֑ה  baldness 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: קָרַח  
Sense: baldness, bald.
וְשַׂמְתִּ֙יהָ֙  and  I  will  make  it 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular
Root: שׂוּמָה 
Sense: to put, place, set, appoint, make.
כְּאֵ֣בֶל  like  mourning  for 
Parse: Preposition-k, Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֵבֶל  
Sense: mourning.
יָחִ֔יד  an  only  [son] 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: יָחִיד  
Sense: only, only one, solitary, one.
וְאַחֲרִיתָ֖הּ  and  its  end 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, feminine singular construct, third person feminine singular
Root: אַחֲרִית  
Sense: after part, end.
כְּי֥וֹם  like  a  day 
Parse: Preposition-k, Noun, masculine singular
Root: יׄום 
Sense: day, time, year.
מָֽר  bitter 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: מַר 
Sense: bitter, bitterness.