Amos 5:1-17

The Old Testament > Amos > Chapters 3-5a > Verses 5:1-17

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Outline and brief summary

The relationship of verses 5:1-17 to the rest of chapters 3-5a is discussed at Amos 3-5a. Verses 5:1-17 can be outlined as follows:

C. Hear this word: Lord still invites Israel to seek him, else destruction (5:1-17)

a. funeral lament for the virgin of Israel (1-3)

b. seek the Lord, not idolatry (4-5)

c. seek the Lord, or the Northern Kingdom will fall (6)

b. seek the Lord, not social injustice (7-13)

a. seek the Lord, or Israel will lament (14-17)

In the previous section (4:1-13) the Lord explained that his alternatives for Israel are exhausted. In this section (5:1-17) he states that his love for Israel, in contrast, is not exhausted. This section contains the only call to repentance in the entire book of Amos. But the placement of this call to seek the Lord and live at the center of Amos - to the extent that there is a center - gives great weight to this invitation. This invitation is the pivot point of the book as the emphasis will now shift from what Israel has done in the past to what will occur in the future if she fails to seek the Lord and live after the Lord has roared within sight of his prey.

This section can be read as a chiasm from the outside edges toward the middle. The virgin of Israel will lament that she is fallen and has lost nine-tenths of her children (5:1-3). So seek good and not evil that ye may live, or else lament that a only a remnant survives (5:14-17). Israel is to do this by abandoning empty religious ceremony and social injustice. Seek ye me and ye shall live, not at the major religious sanctuaries, but impliedly through righteous living (5:4-5). Seek him who is omnipotent, you who enrich yourselves upon the poor and the just, or lose the fruits of your iniquity (5:7-13). And at the middle of this section, and of the entire book of Amos, seek the Lord and ye shall live, or else the house of Joseph that rules the Northern Kingdom will be devoured in spite of anything done at the Bethel sanctuary (5:6).

Until here the train of thought has been: wicked nations deserve punishment (Amos 1-2); the Lord has been loyal to Israel and has loved only Israel (Amos 2-3); but Israel will not walk with the Lord because it oppresses the poor (Amos 2-3); the Lord has chastised Israel, but Israel responds only through empty religious ceremonies (Amos 4); and the Lord still invites Israel to seek him, not at religious sanctuaries, but through righteous daily living (Amos 5a). From here the emphasis shifts to what will happen if Israel does not accept the Lord’s invitation to seek him.

Detailed discussion

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Questions for further thought and study

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Footnotes

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The Old Testament > Amos > Chapters 3-5a > Verses 5:1-17

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Next page: Chapters 5b-6