Amos 7:10 (KJV)

What does Amos 7:10 mean?

Amos 7:10 shows Amaziah treating Amos’s public message as a threat to the king. Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, sends King Jeroboam an accusation: Amos is plotting against him, and the country cannot endure what Amos is saying.

Amaziah speaks as someone with authority at Bethel, a place of worship in Israel. His picture of the land unable to “bear” Amos’s words makes the message sound like a burden too heavy for the country. The report follows Amos’s warning about Jeroboam’s house in verse 9.

The Hebrew behind Amos 7:10

• “conspired” — קָשַׁר (qashar): The word can mean to join together or plot. Here, Amaziah uses it to present Amos’s words as a plot against the king.
• “bear” — כּוּל (kul): The word can carry the sense of holding or containing something. Amaziah’s expression pictures Amos’s words as more than the land can hold.

Why Amos 7:10 matters

• The charge comes from Amaziah, not from the narrator’s description of Amos. The verse says Amaziah sent the accusation to Jeroboam, so the reader hears Amos’s actions as Amaziah presents them.

• Amaziah gives Amos’s words a political focus. In verse 9, Amos reports a warning against Jeroboam’s house; in verse 10, Amaziah tells the king that Amos has plotted “against thee.”

• The report helps explain the confrontation that follows. In verses 12–13, Amaziah tells Amos to leave Bethel, calling it the king’s place of worship and a royal house.