Amos 5:6 (GNV)

Passage

Seeke the Lord, and yee shall liue, least he breake out like fire in the house of Ioseph and deuoure it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

Nearby Context

Amos 5:4 For thus saith the Lord vnto the house of Israel, Seeke ye me, and ye shall liue.

Amos 5:5 But seeke not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and go not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall goe into captiuitie, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

Amos 5:6 Seeke the Lord, and yee shall liue, least he breake out like fire in the house of Ioseph and deuoure it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

Amos 5:7 They turne iudgement to wormewood, and leaue off righteousnes in the earth.

Amos 5:8 He maketh Pleiades, and Orion, and he turneth the shadowe of death into the morning, and he maketh the day darke as night: he calleth the waters of the sea, and powreth them out vpon the open earth: the Lord is his Name.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "seeke", "lord", "shall", "liue", "least", "breake", "like", and "fire". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "seeke" and "lord", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 5's "But seeke not Beth-el nor enter into..." into verse 7's "They turne iudgement to wormewood and leaue...", so "seeke" and "lord" 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 "seeke" and "lord" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.