Amos 5:5

5 Non cercate Bethel, non andate a Ghilgal non vi recate fino a Beer-Sceba; perché Ghilgal andrà di sicuro in cattività, e Bethel sarà ridotto a niente.

Amos 5:5 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 5:5

But seek not Bethel
Do not go to Bethel, the place where one of Jeroboam's calves was set up and worshipped, to consult the oracle, idols, and priests there; or to perform religious worship, which will be your ruin, if not prevented by another course of living: nor enter into Gilgal;
another place of idolatry, where idols were set up and worshipped (See Gill on Amos 4:4); and pass not to Beersheba;
a place in the further part of the land of Israel; it formerly belonged to Judah, but was now in the hands of the ten tribes, and where idolatrous worship was practised; see ( Amos 8:14 ) ; it having been a place where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had dwelt, and worshipped the true God: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity;
that is, the inhabitants of it; they will not be able with their idols and idol worship to save themselves, and therefore go not thither. There is an elegant play on words here ^F2, as there is also in the next words: and Bethel shall come to nought;
which also was called Bethaven, the house of vanity, or of an idol which is nothing in the world; and therefore, because of the idolatry in it, should come to nothing, be utterly destroyed, and the inhabitants of it. So the Targum,

``they, that are in Gilgal, and worship calves in Bethel.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (hlgy hlg lglgh) .

Amos 5:5 In-Context

3 Poiché così parla il Signore, l’Eterno: Alla città che metteva in campagna mille uomini, non ne resteranno che cento; alla città che ne metteva in campagna cento, non ne resteranno che dieci per la casa d’Israele.

4 Poiché così parla l’Eterno alla casa d’Israele: Cercatemi e vivrete!

5 Non cercate Bethel, non andate a Ghilgal non vi recate fino a Beer-Sceba; perché Ghilgal andrà di sicuro in cattività, e Bethel sarà ridotto a niente.

6 Cercate l’Eterno e vivrete, per tema ch’egli non s’avventi come un fuoco sulla casa di Giuseppe, e la divori senza che in Bethel ci sia chi spenga

7 o voi che mutate il diritto in assenzio, e gettate a terra la giustizia.