Amos 5:1-5 – Seek Me and Live

BIBLE TEXT

Amos 5:1-5

SUMMARY

Amos pretends to sing a funeral dirge for a departed loved one, but the song is for the nation–“maiden Israel,” who is dead, “with no one to raise her up.”

ANALYSIS

Amos copies the style of the funeral song in order to get across the point that the nation is as good as dead, because God will judge them. At the end of the song, he announces, “Seek me [God] and live; do not seek Bethel.” Bethel was an important religious center. Amos’s point is that the people must truly seek God; they must not simply go through the motions of worshiping God. If they seek God and reform their lives, they will live.