Amos 1:9-10, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Amos 1:9-10
Tyre Accountable for Trafficking and Betrayed Covenant
Tyre's commerce or policy delivered captives to Edom and violated a remembered relationship; fortified wealth does not erase responsibility for people and promises.
Why this sits here
The parallel charge exposes both the transfer network and the relational betrayal that made it possible.
How the passage moves
The numerical formula names Tyre's accumulated crimes.
Tyre hands an entire captive community to Edom.
The broken brotherly covenant adds relational breach before fire consumes palaces.
What the author is communicating
A needed correction
Reading Amos 1:9-10 inside Amos's complete judgment-restoration movement rules out these uses:
Tyre does not mark a modern ethnic or commercial community as cursed.
The brotherly covenant does not prove one specific alliance beyond dispute.
The threatened fire does not authorize sabotage or religious violence.
What remains true
Contracts and trade cannot become cover for trafficking or abandonment.
How this should shape us
How should this shape us today?
Audit partners for forced labor and captive transfer, and honor protective commitments even when breach would profit the stronger party.
Teach it back
Explain Amos 1:9-10 in your own words. Include its place in Amos's judgment-restoration movement, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Movement 1
The numerical formula names Tyre's accumulated crimes.
Movement 2
Tyre hands an entire captive community to Edom.
Movement 3
The broken brotherly covenant adds relational breach before fire consumes palaces.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Israel, Judah, empire, land, and the limits of reconstruction
Phoenician trade networks and royal treaties provide background, but proposed links to Solomon, Hiram, later Judah, or Alexander's conquest exceed what the oracle states.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording and material alternatives
KJV 'Tyrus' is Tyre. 'Brotherly covenant' denotes a treaty or close agreement; the parties and date are not specified in the verse.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Amos among Israel's Scriptures
Kings remembers agreements between Israelite and Tyrian rulers, while Ezekiel later portrays Tyre's commercial reach; neither text identifies this covenant conclusively.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical connections
The oracle joins human trafficking and treaty memory, showing that profit and diplomacy remain answerable to persons harmed.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The covenant's parties, date, and relation to the deportees remain uncertain; the paired trafficking and betrayal charge is explicit.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The LORD remembers how commercial power treats people and keeps or breaks relationships.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
This unit contributes to Amos's movement from judgment through contested hope to covenant mercy: Tyre's commerce or policy delivered captives to Edom and violated a remembered relationship; fortified wealth does not erase responsibility for people and promises.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
Tyre does not mark a modern ethnic or commercial community as cursed.
A vivid line can feel easier to reuse than the whole oracle's historical target and literary movement.
Trade and diplomacy become crimes when they betray people into captivity and erase pledged responsibility.
Contracts and trade cannot become cover for trafficking or abandonment.
Tyre does not mark a modern ethnic or commercial community as cursed.
The brotherly covenant does not prove one specific alliance beyond dispute.
A strong prophetic claim can be detached from the LORD's role and the text's protection of harmed people.
Trade and diplomacy become crimes when they betray people into captivity and erase pledged responsibility.
Contracts and trade cannot become cover for trafficking or abandonment.
The brotherly covenant does not prove one specific alliance beyond dispute.
The threatened fire does not authorize sabotage or religious violence.
Readers may prefer a modern slogan where the passage preserves textual, historical, or ethical limits.
Trade and diplomacy become crimes when they betray people into captivity and erase pledged responsibility.
Contracts and trade cannot become cover for trafficking or abandonment.
The threatened fire does not authorize sabotage or religious violence.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Amos 1:9-10, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, wordplays, names, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Amos.xml, 1:9-10
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Amos PDF, printed pp. 1705-1708, translation and notes on 1:9-10
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century horizon, literary boundaries, composition, and verse-level alternatives.
Dines, 'Amos,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 582-583, discussion of 1:9-10
Supports: The nations sequence, victim-centered evaluation of wartime and postwar crimes, deportation, trafficking, kin violence, and corpse desecration.
Kessler, 'The Crimes of the Nations in Amos 1-2,' Acta Theologica Supplement 26 (2018), journal pp. 206-220, especially pp. 209-217
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Amos 1:9-10, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Amos
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, wordplays, names, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Amos.xml, 1:9-10
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Amos with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Amos PDF, printed pp. 1705-1708, translation and notes on 1:9-10
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Amos
Jennifer M. Dines
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century horizon, literary boundaries, composition, and verse-level alternatives.
Exact location: Dines, 'Amos,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 582-583, discussion of 1:9-10
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
The Crimes of the Nations in Amos 1-2
Rainer Kessler
Acta Theologica, Supplement 26, 2018
Supports: The nations sequence, victim-centered evaluation of wartime and postwar crimes, deportation, trafficking, kin violence, and corpse desecration.
Exact location: Kessler, 'The Crimes of the Nations in Amos 1-2,' Acta Theologica Supplement 26 (2018), journal pp. 206-220, especially pp. 209-217
Open source ↗