Amos 5:4

5:4 The Lord says this to the family 1  of Israel:

“Seek me 2  so you can live!

Amos 8:1

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw 3  a basket of summer fruit. 4 

1 tn Heb “house.”

2 sn The following verses explain what it meant to seek the Lord. Israel was to abandon the mere formalism and distorted view of God and reality that characterized religious activity at the worship sites, as well as the social injustice that permeated Israelite society. Instead the people were to repent and promote justice in the land. This call to seek the Lord echoes the challenge in 4:13 to prepare to meet him as he truly is.

3 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

4 sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.