Verse Lens · Context pointer
Amos 5:16 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 16. 16Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse announces wailing in streets and highways and calls both farmers and skilled mourners.
Read It With
- Amos 5:16-17
Read Amos 5:16 with 5:16-17. This verse announces wailing in streets and highways and calls both farmers and skilled mourners. The complete unit establishes this movement: Judgment reaches public streets and productive vineyards, drawing ordinary workers and professional mourners into communal grief as the LORD passes through.
Why It Needs Context
The complete oracle in Amos 5:16-17 supplies the accusation, rhetorical turn, historical audience, and outcome that give this line its force; isolated teaching would detach it from those controls.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Amos 5:16-17 — The LORD's Passing Brings Public LamentSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
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 5:16-17, 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, 5:16-17
Open source ↗