What Does Amos 5:6 Mean?
Seek the LORD and live, lest he burst out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
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 the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.THE KEY
The same LORD who is sought as the way to life is pictured advancing like fire through Joseph’s house; even בֵּית־אֵל (Bēt-ʾĒl, “house of God”) has no one to quench it.
THE MEANING
Life is bound to your seeking of the LORD; the verse sets it beside the LORD’s fire advancing through Joseph’s house, with no one at Beth-el able to quench it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacred proximity guarantees safety: Beth-el means “house of God,” yet no one there can quench the fire.
THE ROOT
דִּרְשׁוּ
dirshū
GROWS FROM
דרש
Seek, inquire, consult; in some contexts, require or demand.
“seek” in this verse is dirshū. This root carries more than looking for something: it can mean inquiry and even requirement. The verse binds that active turning toward the LORD to life.
ALSO GROWS
midrāsh: inquiry; interpretive exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
It preserves seeking as an active inquiry that pursues meaning.
nidraš: sought; required
נִדְרָשׁ
The same root can name what is sought and what is required, giving the verse’s seeking the force of a real turning toward God.
וִחְיוּ
viḥyū
GROWS FROM
חיה
Live, be alive, revive.
The Hebrew verb for live and its related word for life share one root. The verse presents life as concrete aliveness, joined to seeking the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
chai: alive; living
חַי
This adjective names the state the verse promises: being alive.
ḥayyim: life
חַיִּים
The noun for life grows from the same root as the verse’s verb live, keeping the two together.
יִצְלַח
yitslaḥ
GROWS FROM
צלח
Advance, push through, prosper.
“burst out” in this verse is yitslaḥ. The word translated “break out” comes from a root that can also describe advancing or prospering. The fire does not merely appear: it makes headway through the house and devours it.
ALSO GROWS
tsālaḥ: advance; prosper; succeed
צָלַח
Its sense of advancing illuminates the fire’s movement through Joseph’s house.
hitslîaḥ: cause to succeed; make prosper
הִצְלִיחַ
This related form carries the same idea of getting forward, sharpening the image of fire that gets through.
THE PATTERN
Turning toward the LORD is presented as a path of life and nearness.
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek me and live.The bowed ones see and are glad. You who seek God, let your heart live.That they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek me and live.This verse repeats the same Hebrew roots for seek and live, making their connection explicit before Amos 5:6 turns it into a warning. The fire image stands against the same path to life.
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