What Does Amos 5:14 Mean?
Seek good and not evil, that you may live, and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.THE KEY
Your claim that the LORD is with you becomes visible in what you seek, because seeking good is already a movement toward life.
THE MEANING
Your life is tied to what you pursue: seeking good and turning away from evil opens into life. The LORD of hosts is with you as you have said, in the lived reality of that pursuit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A declaration that the LORD is with you can stand in for seeking good; this verse binds the claim of presence to the direction of your pursuit.
THE ROOT
דִּרְשׁוּ
dirshū
GROWS FROM
דרש
Seek, inquire, or resort to.
“Seek” in this verse is dirshū. The Hebrew root carries the sense of active seeking and inquiry, a sustained approach rather than a passing glance. Its branches connect seeking with the one who seeks and the act of inquiry itself, framing life as something shaped by what you keep pursuing.
ALSO GROWS
dōrēsh: One who seeks or inquires.
דּוֹרֵשׁ
The branch names a person by the direction of their seeking, bringing the verse’s active pursuit into view.
derishah: Inquiry or investigation.
דְּרִישָׁה
This branch shows that seeking good includes asking after it and returning to its shape.
תִּחְיוּ
tichyū
GROWS FROM
חיה
Live, be alive, or revive.
“Live” in this verse is tichyū. The root for living also forms words for being alive and for life itself. The verse joins the direction of your seeking to the condition of being alive.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Living or alive.
חַי
This branch makes the promise concrete: the result is a living state.
ḥayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
The same root names life itself, linking the pursuit of good with the life that follows.
THE PATTERN
The direction of seeking shapes the life that follows: turning toward good opens into life and wholeness.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek me and live.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek me and live.The two verses repeat the Hebrew verbs for seek (דרש, dāraš) and live (חיה, ḥāyâ): Amos 5:4 states directly what 5:14 unfolds, that seeking the LORD and pursuing good open into life. In 5:14, that same pairing joins life with your claim that the LORD is present.
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