Amos 5:14

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14, 15) Break in like a beam of sunshine in the darkness. The fearful doom, already spoken of, is after all conditional. Let a moral change be wrought in them, and even now Jehovah, God of hosts, may deign to be with them. Enlist your passions on the right side. No virtue is safe till it is enthusiastic.

Benson Commentary

Amos 5:14-15. Seek good, and not evil — Give your minds to the practice of true piety and virtue. Do that which is just and good, and endeavour to make others do the same. That ye may live — That it may be well with you, your families, and the whole kingdom. And so the Lord God of hosts — The eternal, glorious God, who is Lord of all, and can help you, having all the hosts of heaven and earth at his disposal; shall be with you — To bless and save you yet, notwithstanding all your former sins. As ye have spoken — You have boasted of his being with you, you think he is with you, and is bound to be with you, and own you: so he will indeed, but it is on condition that you repent and turn from your idols and violence. Hate the evil — Practised either by yourselves or others. And love the good —

Cleave to and practise it yourselves, and commend, encourage, defend, and reward it in others. Let your hearts be toward good things and good men. Establish judgment in the gate — Set up honest and upright judges in the gates of your cities, and see that true judgment be there administered. By this it is evident, that the prophet speaks chiefly to governors and persons in authority among them. It may be the Lord will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph — To those small remains of the ten tribes which the civil wars and the invasions of your enemies have spared. As if he had said, Your case is not so desperate but repentance may yet avert God’s judgments, and he may show himself gracious to those that are left of you.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It behoves us to plead God's spiritual promises, to beseech him to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. The Lord is ever ready to be gracious to the souls that seek him; and then piety and every duty will be attended to. But as for sinful Israel, God's judgments had often passed by them, now they shall pass through them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seek good and not evil - that is, and "seek not evil." Amos again takes up his warning, "seek not Bethel; seek the Lord." Now they not only "did evil," but they "sought" it diligently; they were diligent in doing it, and so, in bringing it on themselves; they sought it out and the occasions of it. People "cannot seek good without first putting away evil, as it is written, 'cease to do evil, learn to do well' Isaiah 1:16-17." "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." He bids them use the same diligence in seeking good which they now used for evil. Seek it also wholly, not seeking at one while good, at another, evil, but wholly good, and Him who is Good. "He seeketh good, who believeth in Him who saith, 'I am the Good Shepherd' John 10:11."

That ye may live - In Him who "is the Life; and so the Lord, the God of hosts shall be with you," by His holy presence, grace and protection, "as ye have spoken." Israel looked away from the sins whereby he displeased God, and looked to his half-worship of God as entitling him to all which God had promised to full obedience. : "They gloried in the nobleness of their birth after the flesh, not in imitating the faith and lives of the patriarchs. So then, because they were descended from Abraham, they thought that God must defend them. Such were those Jews, to whom the Saveour said, "If ye were Abraham's seed, ye would do the works of Abraham" John 8:39; and His forerunner, 'think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham for our father' Matthew 3:9." They wished that God should abide with them, that they might "abide in the land" Psalm 37:3, but they cared not to abide with God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. and so—on condition of your "seeking good."

shall be with you, as ye have spoken—as ye have boasted; namely, that God is with you, and that you are His people (Mic 3:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Seek good; turn to the law of God, study it, that ye may do the good it requireth in works of piety, justice, and charity.

And not evil: you have devised evil, and done it in works of impiety, injustice, and cruelty. Or this may be the same with Amos 5:4-6, which see.

That ye may live: see Amos 5:4.

The Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you; the eternal glorious God, who is Lord of all, and can help you, having all the hosts of heaven and earth at his disposal; he will be with you to bless and save you yet, notwithstanding all your former sins.

As ye have spoken; you have boasted his being with you, you think he is bound to be with you and own you; so he will indeed, but it is if you repent, cease from idols and violence.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Seek good, and not evil,.... Seek not unto, or after, evil persons and evil things; not the company and conversation of evil men, which is infectious and dangerous; nor anything that is evil, or has the appearance of it, especially the evil of evils, sin; which is hateful to God, contrary to his nature and will; is evil in its own nature, and bad in its consequences, and therefore not to be sought, but shunned and avoided; but seek that which is good, persons and things: seek the "summum bonnum", "the chief good", God, who is essentially, perfectly, immutably, and communicatively good, the fountain of all goodness, and the portion of his people; seek Christ the good Saviour and sacrifice, the good Shepherd, and the good Samaritan, who is good in all his relations, as a father, husband, and friend, and in whom all good things are laid up; seek the good Spirit of God, who works good things in his people, and shows good things to them, and is the Comforter of them; seek to him for assistance in prayer, and to help in the exercise of every grace, and in the discharge of every duty, and as the guide into all truth, and to eternal glory; seek the good ways of God, the way of truth, the path of faith and holiness, and especially the good way to the Father, the way of life and salvation by Christ; seek the good word of God, the Scriptures of truth, the promises contained in them, and the Gospel of them; seek the company of good men, and that good part that shall not be taken away, the true grace of God, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; seek the glories of another world, the goodness of God laid up, the best things which are reserved to last:

that ye may live; comfortably, spiritually, and eternally, which is the consequence of all this; See Gill on Amos 5:4; See Gill on Amos 5:6;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken; as they used to say, and boasted of; though they had not the temple, the ark of the testimony, the symbols of the divine Presence, as Judah had; but this they would have in reality, both his gracious presence here, and his glorious presence hereafter, did they truly and rightly seek those things; than which nothing is more desirable to good men, or can make them more comfortable, or more happy. The Targum is,

"seek to do well, and not to do ill, that ye may live; and then the word of the Lord God of hosts shall be your help, as ye have said.''

Geneva Study Bible

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14–15. Amos reiterates more earnestly the exhortation of Amos 5:4; Amos 5:6 : if Israel will but amend its ways, perchance even yet there may be a remnant to which Jehovah will be gracious.

Seek] The same word as Amos 5:4; Amos 5:6, but followed by an abstract object, in the sense of be studious, anxious about (cf. Isaiah 1:17, ‘seek judgment.’

and so … as ye say] and Jehovah will then be with you to defend you in reality, exactly as you say (cf. Micah 3:11) that He actually is now. For the thought, cf. Amos 5:18 : the Israelites, so long as their material prosperity continued, imagined that Jehovah was with them, as their patron and defender; Amos replies that the real condition of His being with them is the moral goodness of their lives. Jehovah’s power to defend is hinted at significantly by the title ‘God of hosts’ (on Amos 3:13). So points on to, and strengthens, the following as, exactly as in Exodus 10:10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - He repeats his loving summons to repentance, as in vers. 4, 6, showing that their only hope of safety lay in amendment of life (comp Zephaniah 2:3). Seek good, and not evil. Use that diligence and zeal in pursuing what is good which you have hitherto shown in the pursuit of evil. The Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken; or, as ye say. The Israelites fancied that, owing to their covenant relation to God, he would be always with them and ready to help them under any circumstances. Their prosperity under Jeroboam II, as Calmet remarks seemed an argument in their favour, proving that God blessed them, and that they had no cause for fear (comp. Jeremiah 7:4, etc.; Micah 3:11; Matthew 3:9; John 8:39). But really God's help and favour were conditioned by their obedience. Amos 5:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah the God of hosts may be with you, as ye say. Amos 5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and set up justice in the gate; perhaps Jehovah the God of hosts will show favour to the remnant of Joseph." The command to seek and love good is practically the same as that to seek the Lord in Amos 5:4, Amos 5:6; and therefore the promise is the same, "that ye may live." But it is only in fellowship with God that man has life. This truth the Israelites laid hold of in a perfectly outward sense, fancying that they stood in fellowship with God by virtue of their outward connection with the covenant nation as sons of Israel or Abraham (cf. John 8:39), and that the threatened judgment could not reach them, but that God would deliver them in every time of oppression by the heathen (cf. Micah 3:11; Jeremiah 7:10). Amos meets this delusion with the remark, "that Jehovah may be so with you as ye say." כּן neither means "in case ye do so" (Rashi, Baur), nor "in like manner as, i.e., if ye strive after good" (Hitzig). Neither of these meanings can be established, and here they are untenable, for the simple reason that כּן unmistakeably corresponds with the following כּאשׁר. It means nothing more than "so as ye say." The thought is the following: "Seek good, and not evil: then will Jehovah the God of the heavenly hosts be with you as a helper in distress, so as ye say." This implied that in their present condition, so long as they sought good, they ought not to comfort themselves with the certainty of Jehovah's help. Seeking good is explained in v. 15 as loving good, and this is still further defined as setting up justice in the gate, i.e., maintaining a righteous administration of justice at the place of judgment; and to this the hope, so humiliating to carnal security, is attached: perhaps God will then show favour to the remnant of the people. The emphasis in these words is laid as much upon perhaps as upon the remnant of Joseph. The expression "perhaps He will show favour" indicates that the measure of Israel's sins was full, and no deliverance could be hoped for if God were to proceed to act according to His righteousness. The "remnant of Joseph" does not refer to "the existing condition of the ten tribes" (Ros., Hitzig). For although Hazael and Benhadad had conquered the whole of the land of Gilead in the times of Jehu and Jehoahaz, and had annihilated the Israelitish army with the exception of a very small remnant (2 Kings 10:32-33; 2 Kings 13:3, 2 Kings 13:7), Joash and Jeroboam II had recovered from the Syrians all the conquered territory, and restored the kingdom to its original bounds (2 Kings 13:23., 2 Kings 14:26-28). Consequently Amos could not possibly describe the state of the kingdom of the ten tribes in the time of Jeroboam II as "the remnant of Joseph." As the Syrians had not attempted any deportation, the nation of the ten tribes during the reign of Jeroboam was still, or was once more, all Israel. If, therefore, Amos merely holds out the possibility of the favouring of the remnant of Joseph, he thereby gives distinctly to understand, that in the approaching judgment Israel will perish with the exception of a remnant, which may possibly be preserved after the great chastisement (cf. Amos 5:3), just as Joel (Joel 3:5) and Isaiah (Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21-23) promise only the salvation of a remnant to the kingdom of Judah.