Amos 9:1
I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
Study Note
Study Note
The fifth and final vision of Amos — 'I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said, Smite the lintel' — reaches its climax when the divine presence becomes the agent of judgment rather than protection: YHWH has vacated the position of covenant guarantor and now commands the destruction of his own sanctuary. The shift from 'saw the Lord in vision' (7:1, 4, 7; 8:1) to 'saw the Lord standing upon the altar' is a terrifying spatial claim — the Holy of Holies is no longer a place of refuge but of exposure. The command 'cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword' eliminates every possible mode of escape enumerated in vv. 2–4 (Sheol, heaven, mountain top, sea bottom), creating an inescapability rhetoric that matches Psalm 139's divine omnipresence but with judgment rather than comfort as its application. The vision was apparently delivered in the sanctuary at Bethel during a festival, making its impact maximally disruptive.
Other Translations
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said, Smite the capitals, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
I have seen the Lord standing by the altar, and He saith: `Smite the knob, and the thresholds shake, And cut them off by the head--all of them, And their posterity with a sword I do slay, Not flee to them doth the fleer, Nor escape to them doth a fugitive.
I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe.
Cross References
Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the Lord; I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all …
But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the …
And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the …
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with …
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full …
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, …
He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit …
Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and …
And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man …