Amos 5:6 (ASV)

Passage

Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

Nearby Context

Amos 5:4 For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live;

Amos 5:5 but seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

Amos 5:6 Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

Amos 5:7 Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,

Amos 5:8 [seek him] that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth (Jehovah is his name);

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "seek", "jehovah", "shall", "live", "lest", "break", "like", and "fire". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "seek" and "jehovah", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 5's "but seek not Beth-el nor enter into..." into verse 7's "Ye who turn justice to wormwood and...", so "seek" and "jehovah" belong inside that flow. In Amos context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "seek" and "jehovah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.