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.
Verses 14-15
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
