Amos 5:4-8

Seek God and Live

4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek Me and live!

5 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

6 Seek Yahweh and live, or He will spread like fire^[a] [throughout] the house of Joseph; it will consume [everything,] with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.^[b]

7 Those who turn justice into wormwood^[c] throw righteousness to the ground.

8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,^[d] who turns darkness^[e] into dawn^[f] and darkens day into night,^[g] who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth^[h]- Yahweh is His name.

Amos 5:4-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 5

In this chapter the prophet exhorts Israel to hear his lamentation over them for their impending ruin, Am 5:1-3; nevertheless to seek the Lord, and all that is good; to forsake their idols, and repent of their sins, in hopes of finding mercy, and living comfortably; or otherwise they must expect the wrath of God for their iniquities, especially their oppression of the poor, Am 5:4-15; otherwise it would be a time of weeping and wailing, of darkness and distress, however they might harden or flatter themselves, or make a jest of it, Am 5:16-20; for all their sacrifices and ceremonial worship would signify nothing, so long as they continued their idolatry with them Am 5:21-26; and therefore should surely go into captivity, Am 5:27.

Footnotes

• [a]. Dt 4:24; 32:22; Heb 12:29
• [b]. Isa 33:14; 66:24; Jr 4:4
• [c]. Am 6:12
• [d]. Jb 9:9; 38:31
• [e]. Or turns the shadow of death
• [f]. Am 4:13; Gn 1:2-3; Jb 38:12
• [g]. Am 8:9
• [h]. Jb 36:27-30