Amo 5:13-15 | KD | STEP | With the new turn that all talking is useless, Amos repeats the admonition to seek good and hate evil, if they would live and obtain favour with God ( ); and then appends the threat that deep mourning will arise on every hand, since God is drawing near to judgment. Amo 5:13. “Therefore, whoever has prudence at this time is silent, for it is an evil time.” As lâkhēn (therefore) always introduces the threatening of divine punishment after the exposure of the sins (cf. , ; ; ; ), we might be disposed to connect with the preceding verse; but the contents of the verse require that it should be taken in connection with what follows, so that lâkhēn simply denote the close connection of the two turns of speech, i.e., indicates that the new command in , is a consequence of the previous warnings. Hammaskı̄l , the prudent man, he who acts wisely, is silent. בּעת ההיא, at a time such as this is, because it is an evil time, not however “a dangerous time to speak, on account of the malignity of those in power,” but a time of moral corruption, in which all speaking and warning are of no avail. It is opposed to the context to refer בעת ההיא to the future, i.e., to the time when God will come to punish, in which case the silence would be equivalent to not murmuring against God (Rashi and others). At the same time, love to his people, and zeal for their deliverance, impel the prophet to repeat his call to them to return.

‏ Amos 5:13-15

With the new turn that all talking is useless, Amos repeats the admonition to seek good and hate evil, if they would live and obtain favour with God (Amo 5:13-15); and then appends the threat that deep mourning will arise on every hand, since God is drawing near to judgment. Amo 5:13. “Therefore, whoever has prudence at this time is silent, for it is an evil time.” As lâkhēn (therefore) always introduces the threatening of divine punishment after the exposure of the sins (cf. Amo 5:11, Amo 5:16; Amo 6:7; Amo 4:12; Amo 3:11), we might be disposed to connect Amo 5:13 with the preceding verse; but the contents of the verse require that it should be taken in connection with what follows, so that lâkhēn simply denote the close connection of the two turns of speech, i.e., indicates that the new command in Amo 5:14, Amo 5:15 is a consequence of the previous warnings. Hammaskı̄l, the prudent man, he who acts wisely, is silent. בּעת ההיא, at a time such as this is, because it is an evil time, not however “a dangerous time to speak, on account of the malignity of those in power,” but a time of moral corruption, in which all speaking and warning are of no avail. It is opposed to the context to refer בעת ההיא to the future, i.e., to the time when God will come to punish, in which case the silence would be equivalent to not murmuring against God (Rashi and others). At the same time, love to his people, and zeal for their deliverance, impel the prophet to repeat his call to them to return. Amo 5:14-15 “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah the God of hosts may be with you, as ye say. Amo 5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and set up justice in the gate; perhaps Jehovah the God of hosts will show favour to the remnant of Joseph.” The command to seek and love good is practically the same as that to seek the Lord in Amo 5:4, Amo 5:6; and therefore the promise is the same, “that ye may live.” But it is only in fellowship with God that man has life. This truth the Israelites laid hold of in a perfectly outward sense, fancying that they stood in fellowship with God by virtue of their outward connection with the covenant nation as sons of Israel or Abraham (cf. Joh 8:39), and that the threatened judgment could not reach them, but that God would deliver them in every time of oppression by the heathen (cf. Mic 3:11; Jer 7:10). Amos meets this delusion with the remark, “that Jehovah may be so with you as ye say.” כּן neither means “in case ye do so” (Rashi, Baur), nor “in like manner as, i.e., if ye strive after good” (Hitzig). Neither of these meanings can be established, and here they are untenable, for the simple reason that כּן unmistakeably corresponds with the following כּאשׁר. It means nothing more than “so as ye say.” The thought is the following: “Seek good, and not evil: then will Jehovah the God of the heavenly hosts be with you as a helper in distress, so as ye say.” This implied that in their present condition, so long as they sought good, they ought not to comfort themselves with the certainty of Jehovah’s help. Seeking good is explained in v. 15 as loving good, and this is still further defined as setting up justice in the gate, i.e., maintaining a righteous administration of justice at the place of judgment; and to this the hope, so humiliating to carnal security, is attached: perhaps God will then show favour to the remnant of the people. The emphasis in these words is laid as much upon perhaps as upon the remnant of Joseph. The expression “perhaps He will show favour” indicates that the measure of Israel’s sins was full, and no deliverance could be hoped for if God were to proceed to act according to His righteousness. The “remnant of Joseph” does not refer to “the existing condition of the ten tribes” (Ros., Hitzig). For although Hazael and Benhadad had conquered the whole of the land of Gilead in the times of Jehu and Jehoahaz, and had annihilated the Israelitish army with the exception of a very small remnant (2Ki 10:32-33; 2Ki 13:3, 2Ki 13:7), Joash and Jeroboam II had recovered from the Syrians all the conquered territory, and restored the kingdom to its original bounds (2Ki 13:23., 2Ki 14:26-28). Consequently Amos could not possibly describe the state of the kingdom of the ten tribes in the time of Jeroboam II as “the remnant of Joseph.” As the Syrians had not attempted any deportation, the nation of the ten tribes during the reign of Jeroboam was still, or was once more, all Israel. If, therefore, Amos merely holds out the possibility of the favouring of the remnant of Joseph, he thereby gives distinctly to understand, that in the approaching judgment Israel will perish with the exception of a remnant, which may possibly be preserved after the great chastisement (cf. Amo 5:3), just as Joel (Joe 3:5) and Isaiah (Isa 6:13; Isa 10:21-23) promise only the salvation of a remnant to the kingdom of Judah.