Amos 9:8 (DRB)

Passage

Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

Nearby Context

Amos 9:6 He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath founded his bundle upon the earth: who calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name.

Amos 9:7 Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? did not I bring up Israel, out of the land of Egypt: and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cyrene?

Amos 9:8 Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

Amos 9:9 For behold I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve: and there shall not a little stone fall to the ground.

Amos 9:10 All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come upon us.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "behold", "eyes", "lord", "upon", "sinful", "kingdom", "destroy", and "face". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "behold" and "eyes", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "Are not you as the children of..." into verse 9's "For behold I will command and I...", so "behold" and "eyes" belong inside that flow. In Amos context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "behold" and "eyes" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.