Amos 5:14 (WEB)

Passage

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

Nearby Context

Amos 5:12 For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.

Amos 5:13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

Amos 5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Amos 5:16 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "seek", "good", "evil", "live", "yahweh", and "armies". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "seek" and "good", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 13's "Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in..." into verse 15's "Hate evil love good and establish justice...", so "seek" and "good" 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 "good" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.