Amos 5:4

THE MESSAGE

God 's Message to the family of Israel: "Seek me and live. Don't fool around at those shrines of Bethel, Don't waste time taking trips to Gilgal, and don't bother going down to Beer-sheba. Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow and Bethel is all show, no substance."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For the Lord says to the house of Israel:

Hebrew Names Version
For thus says the LORD to the house of Yisra'el: "Seek me, and you will live;

King James Version
For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

English Standard Version
For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;

New American Standard Bible
For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek Me so that you may live.

New Century Version
This is what the Lord says to the nation of Israel: "Come to me and live.

Amplified Bible
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, "Seek Me [search diligently for Me and regard Me as more essential than food] so that you may live.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For thus saith the Lorde vnto the house of Israel, Seeke ye me, and ye shal liue.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, "Seek Me that you may live.

Legacy Standard Bible
For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel,"Seek Me that you may live.

Berean Standard Bible
For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live!

Contemporary English Version
The Lord keeps saying, "Israel, turn back to me and you will live!

Complete Jewish Bible
For here is what Adonai says to the house of Isra'el: "If you seek me, you will survive;

Darby Translation
For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord says this to the nation of Israel: "Come looking for me and live.

George Lamsa Translation
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: Seek me and you shall live;

Good News Translation
The Lord says to the people of Israel, "Come to me, and you will live.

Lexham English Bible
For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel, "Seek me so that you may live."

Literal Translation
For so says Jehovah to the house of Israel, Seek Me, and live.

American Standard Version
For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live;

Bible in Basic English
For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live;

King James Version (1611)
For thus saith the Lord vnto the house of Israel, Seeke ye mee, and ye shall liue.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For thus sayth the Lord vnto the house of Israel, Seke ye me, and ye shall liue.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Wherefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

English Revised Version
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

World English Bible
For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For the Lord seith these thingis to the hous of Israel, Seke ye me, and ye schulen lyue;

Update Bible Version
For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel, Seek me, and you shall live;

Webster's Bible Translation
For thus saith the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

New English Translation
The Lord says this to the family of Israel: "Seek me so you can live!

New King James Version
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live;

New Living Translation
Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel: "Come back to me and live!

New Life Bible
The Lord says to the people of Israel, "Look for Me and live.

New Revised Standard
For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and live;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, thus, saith Yahweh, to the house of Israel, - Seek me, and live;

Douay-Rheims Bible
For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live.

Revised Standard Version
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;

Young's Literal Translation
For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Neuertheles, thus sayeth the LORDE vnto ye house of Israel: Seke after me, ad ye shal lyue,

Contextual Overview

⁴ God 's Message to the family of Israel: "Seek me and live. Don't fool around at those shrines of Bethel, Don't waste time taking trips to Gilgal, and don't bother going down to Beer-sheba. Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow and Bethel is all show, no substance." ⁶ So seek God and live! You don't want to end up with nothing to show for your life But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground. For God will send just such a fire, and the firefighters will show up too late. ⁷Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud. Do you realize where you are? You're in a cosmos star-flung with constellations by God, A world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night. God dips water from the ocean and gives the land a drink. God , God-revealed, does all this. And he can destroy it as easily as make it. He can turn this vast wonder into total waste. ¹⁰People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular. But here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You're never going to move into the luxury homes you have built. You're never going to drink wine from the expensive vineyards you've planted. I know precisely the extent of your violations, the enormity of your sins. Appalling! You bully right-living people, taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they're down. ¹³ Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath. ¹⁴ Seek good and not evil— and live! You talk about God , the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen. ¹⁵ Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square. Maybe God , the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Seek: Amos 5:6, Deuteronomy 30:1-8, 1 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Chronicles 15:2, 2 Chronicles 20:3, 2 Chronicles 34:3, Psalms 14:2, Psalms 27:8, Isaiah 55:6, Isaiah 55:7, Jeremiah 29:12, Jeremiah 29:13, Lamentations 3:25, Lamentations 3:26, Zephaniah 2:3, Matthew 7:8

and: Psalms 22:26, Psalms 69:32, Psalms 105:3, Psalms 105:4, Isaiah 55:3

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 14:4 - seek Isaiah 31:1 - neither Isaiah 45:19 - Seek Ezekiel 18:9 - he shall Hosea 10:12 - time Hosea 11:7 - are bent Amos 4:12 - prepare Matthew 7:7 - seek Luke 11:9 - seek

Cross-References

Genesis 5:1
This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.

Genesis 5:3
When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was just like him, his very spirit and image, and named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Adam lived a total of 930 years. And he died.

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.

Genesis 11:12
When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

Psalms 127:3
Don't you see that children are God 's best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

Psalms 144:12
Make our sons in their prime like sturdy oak trees, Our daughters as shapely and bright as fields of wildflowers. Fill our barns with great harvest, fill our fields with huge flocks; Protect us from invasion and exile— eliminate the crime in our streets.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel,.... Or "yet" a, notwithstanding all this, though such judgments were threatened and denounced, and such desolations should certainly come, in case of impenitence, and an obstinate continuance in a course of sin; yet hopes are given of finding mercy and kindness upon repentance and reformation, at least to the remnant of them; see Amos 5:15;

seek ye me; seek my fear, as the Targum; fear and reverence, serve and worship, the Lord God; return unto him by repentance; seek to him by prayer and supplication; acknowledge your sins, and humble yourselves before him, and implore his pardoning grace and mercy:

and ye shall live; in your own land, and not be carried out of it; live comfortably, in great plenty of good things; and live spiritually, enjoying the favour of God, and his presence in his ordinances, and live eternally in the world to come.

a כי "attamen", Grotius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seek ye Me and ye shall live - Literally, “seek Me; and live.” Wonderful conciseness of the word of God, which, in two words, comprises the whole of the creature’s duty and his hopes, his time and his eternity. The prophet users the two imperatives, inoneing both, man’s duty and his reward. He does not speak of them, as cause and effect, but as one. Where the one is, there is the other. To seek God is to live. For to seek God is to find Him, and God is Life and the Source of life. Forgiveness, grace, life, enter the soul at once. But the seeking is diligent seeking. : “It is not to seek God anyhow, but as it is right and meet that He should be sought, longed for, prayed for, who is so great, a Good, constantly, fervently, yea, to our power, the more constantly and fervently, as an Infinite Good is more to be longed for, more loved than all created good.” The object of the search is God Himself. “Seek Me,” that is, seek God for Himself, not for anything out of Him, not for His gifts, not for anything to be loved with Him. This is not to seek Him purely. All is found in Him, but by seeking Him first, and then loving Him in all, and all in Him. “And ye shall live,” first by the life of the body, escaping the enemy; then by the life of grace now, and the life of glory hereafter, as in that of the Psalmist, “your heart shall live who seek God” Psalms 69:32.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 5:4. Seek ye me, and ye shall live — Cease your rebellion against me; return to me with all your heart; and though consigned to death, ye shall be rescued and live. Deplorable as your case is, it is not utterly desperate.