Original Word: עָמִיר
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: `amiyr
Pronunciation: ah-meer
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-meer')
KJV: handful, sheaf
NASB: sheaves, sheaf
Word Origin: [from H6014 (עָמַר - To bind sheaves)]

1. a bunch of grain

handful, sheaf

From amar; a bunch of grain -- handful, sheaf.

see HEBREW amar

Word Origin
from the same as omer
Definition
a swath, row of fallen grain
NASB Translation
sheaf (1), sheaves (3).

עָמִיר noun [masculine] swath, row of fallen grain (hay, as Mishna, according to Vogelst^{l.c. 74 f.} (who is then compelled to read עֹמֶר Micah 4:12), compare Syriac grass, Schw^{Idioticon 69}); — Amos 2:13 (on cart), Jeremiah 9:21 (falling behind reaper), Micah 4:12 (brought to threshing-floor), Zechariah 12:6 (inflammable).

Agricultural Background

In the grain–based economy of ancient Israel, the sheaf was the fundamental unit of harvested grain. Reapers cut stalks with sickles, gathered them into arm-sized bundles, and bound them for drying or immediate transport to the threshing floor. Because the sheaf represented the moment when growth ended and reckoning by weight began, it naturally lent itself to figurative use in prophecy and poetry.

Literal Imagery Transformed into Prophetic Speech

All four appearances of עָמִיר connect the humble sheaf to moments of decisive divine action.

• Jeremiah 9:22 compares unburied corpses to “cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them”. The picture is of stalks left scattered, worthless and forgotten—a shocking reversal of the normal care given to food.

• Amos 2:13 warns Israel, “I will crush you in your place as a cart loaded with sheaves crushes grain.” The weight of piled sheaves, stressing a creaking wagon, becomes a metaphor for unbearable judgment pressing down on covenant breakers.

• Micah 4:12 offers the counter-image: hostile nations “gathered … like sheaves to the threshing floor.” God assembles His enemies into neat bundles, ready for swift threshing by His people.

• Zechariah 12:6 expands that promise: Judah will be “like a flaming torch among sheaves,” consuming surrounding peoples while Jerusalem stands secure. The fragile, combustible nature of dry bundles highlights the inevitability of victory granted by the LORD.

Themes of Judgment and Salvation

1. Immediacy of Judgment

The sheaf is already cut; life’s opportunities are over. Whether bodies on a field (Jeremiah) or nations on a threshing floor (Micah), the moment for mercy has passed unless repentance has preceded the harvest.

2. Weight of Sin

Amos uses the packed wagon to show that accumulated transgression eventually collapses upon the sinner. Sheaves once symbolizing provision now signal crushing burden.

3. Sovereign Separation

Micah and Zechariah reveal that God, not chance, bundles the righteous and the wicked. He gathers adversaries for destruction yet preserves His people in the same agricultural tableau.

Historical Setting

Each prophet speaks into crises in Israel or Judah’s history—moral decay before the Babylonian conquest (Jeremiah), social injustice under prosperous but idolatrous northern kings (Amos), Assyrian threats against Jerusalem (Micah), and post-exilic fears of surrounding hostility (Zechariah). The shared image provided a stable visual vocabulary across centuries: listeners who had bound sheaves with their own hands felt the force of the metaphor immediately.

Ministry Significance

• Call to Repentance. The cut sheaf warns that life’s harvest is finite. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).

• Assurance of Divine Victory. Believers facing opposition may recall that the LORD can make a single torch triumph over countless sheaves.

• Perspective on Evangelism. Just as reapers gather sheaves while daylight remains, disciples labor while the “fields are white for harvest” (John 4:35), trusting God to sort wheat from chaff in His time.

Conclusion

עָמִיר weaves together the everyday sight of bundled grain with the ultimate realities of judgment and redemption. Whether portraying bodies littered like neglected sheaves or nations consumed like dry bundles in a flame, Scripture employs the same agricultural picture to affirm that the Holy One of Israel oversees the harvest of history and that His purposes will stand.

בְּעָמִ֔יר בעמיר וּכְעָמִ֛יר וכעמיר כֶּעָמִ֥יר כעמיר עָמִֽיר׃ עמיר׃ ‘ā·mîr ‘āmîr aMir bə‘āmîr bə·‘ā·mîr beaMir ke‘āmîr ke·‘ā·mîr keaMir ū·ḵə·‘ā·mîr ucheaMir ūḵə‘āmîrInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts