Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Amos 2:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens judgment with a difficult loaded-cart image of pressure, crushing, splitting, or shaking.
Read It With
- Amos 2:13-16
Read Amos 2:13 with 2:13-16. This verse opens judgment with a difficult loaded-cart image of pressure, crushing, splitting, or shaking. The complete unit establishes this movement: The judgment presses or shakes Israel and renders every celebrated military advantage unable to deliver; even the courageous fighter flees stripped of equipment.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The nation-oracle closes by overturning trust in human capability and making the threatened defeat unavoidable. Within that movement, this verse opens judgment with a difficult loaded-cart image of pressure, crushing, splitting, or shaking.
Follow the Context
- A heavily loaded cart supplies an obscure image of crushing, pressure, or shaking.
- Speed and strength fail.
- Weapons, fast feet, and horses do not rescue.
- The most courageous warrior flees naked.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“pressed under you, as a cart is pressed”
In plain language: The KJV presents a heavily loaded cart as the image for impending pressure.
opens judgment with a difficult loaded-cart image of pressure, crushing, splitting, or shaking. Persistent injustice can bring pressure no human capacity can evade.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk that requires the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The verse does not justify crushing people, and its cart image does not identify a modern technology or disaster.
What Remains True
Persistent injustice can bring pressure no human capacity can evade.
How It Can Shape Life
- Acknowledge uncertainty in difficult images while taking the surrounding warning seriously.
Teach It Back
Explain Amos 2:13's contribution to Amos 2:13-16: opens judgment with a difficult loaded-cart image of pressure, crushing, splitting, or shaking. Include what the surrounding verses add, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Amos 2:13-16 — No Speed, Strength, Weapon, Horse, or Courage Can EscapeSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The verb, subject, and mechanics of the image are materially uncertain.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 2:13-16, 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, 2:13-16
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. 1708-1710, translation and notes on 2:13-16
Open source ↗