Amos 5:6-7, Amos 5:10-15 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 5:4-15

This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which, I. They are told of their faults, that they might see what occasion there was for them to repent and reform, and that, when they were called to return, they might not need to ask, Wherein shall we return? 1. God tells them, in general (Amos 5:12), ?I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins; and you shall be made to know them too.? In our penitent reflections upon our sins we must consider, as God does in his judicial... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:6

Seek the Lord, and ye shall live ,.... This is, repeated to stir up unto it, because of their backwardness and slothfulness, and to show the importance and necessity of it. By the "Lord" may be meant the Messiah, Israel's God that was to come, and they were to prepare to meet, Amos 4:12 ; and the rather, since life spiritual and eternal is only to be had from him, and he is to be sought unto for it, and all the blessings of it, peace, pardon, righteousness, rest, and salvation as well as... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:7

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood ,.... This seems to be spoken to kings and judges, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe; in whose hands is the administration of justice, and who often pervert it, as these did here addressed and complained of; that which was the most useful and salubrious, and so the most desirable to the commonwealth, namely, just judgment, was changed into the reverse, what was as bitter and as disagreeable as wormwood; or "hemlock", as it might be rendered, and as it is in ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:6

Seek the Lord, and ye shall live - Repeated from Amos 5:4 . In the house of Joseph - The Israelites of the ten tribes, of whom Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, were the chief. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:7

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood - Who pervert judgment; causing him who obtains his suit to mourn sorely over the expenses he has incurred in gaining his right. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:6

Verse 6 He then adds, Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live This repetition is not superfluous: the Prophet confirms what I have already stated, that such was the opposition between the true and legitimate worship of God, and idolatry and superstition, that the people of Israel, as long as they retained their corruptions, proved that they had nothing to do with God, whatever they may have pretended with their mouths and by their ceremonies. Seek God, he says, and ye shall live; and this repetition... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:7

Verse 7 Here the Prophet, after having inveighed against superstitions, comes to the second table of the law. The Prophets are sometimes wont to shake off self-complacencies from hypocrites, when they spread before God their external veils, by saying that all their ceremonies are useless, except accompanied with integrity of heart: but in this place the Prophet expressly condemns in the Israelites two things; that is, that they had corrupted the true worship of God, departed from the doctrine... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:4-6

The seeking that is life. This passage contains at once a vindication of the coming destruction on Israel, and a last offer of escape. All past evil had been justly incurred by departure from God. All coming evil might yet be avoided by return to him. "Seek ye me" was the direction on their treatment of which the whole issue turned. I. EVEN THE FOREDOOMED ARE NOT ABANDONED OF GOD . The antediluvians were preached to for a century after their destruction was denounced.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:6

Break out like fire. God is called "a consuming fire" ( Deuteronomy 4:24 ; Hebrews 12:29 ; comp. Jeremiah 4:4 ). And devour it; Septuagint, ὅπως μὴ ἀναλάμψη ὡς πῦρ ὁ οἶκος ἰωσὴφ καὶ καταφάγῃ αὐτόν , "Lest the house of Joseph blaze as fire, and he devour him;" Vulgate, Ne forte comburatur ut ignis domus Joseph, et devorabit. But it is best to take the last member of the sentence thus: "and it (the fire) devour." The house of Joseph. Ephraim, i.e. the kingdom... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:7

The prophet brings out the con-trust between Israel's moral corruption and God's omnipotence. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood. As Jerome puts it," Converterunt dulcedinem judicii in absinthii amaritudinem," "They turned the sweetness of judgment into the bitterness of absinth" (comp. Amos 6:12 ). Who make judgment the occasion of the bitterest injustice. There is no syntactical connection between this verse and the last, but virtually we may append it to "seek the Lord." It would sound in... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 5:4-15

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:7

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:6

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:7

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:6

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:7

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:4-6

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:6

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:7

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