Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Parallel translations
- WEB Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- BSB Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- NKJV Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
- NASB Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the Lord God of armies Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
- NLT Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God calls them to hate evil, love good, and restore just courts, holding out hope that he may yet be gracious to a remnant. Even amid coming judgment, mercy is offered to the repentant.
Overview
True repentance is not neutral but involves both hating evil and loving good, expressed concretely in just dealings at the gate. The tentative 'it may be' shows that grace is God's free gift, not something Israel can presume upon. The 'remnant of Joseph' points forward to God's faithful preservation of a people, ultimately the remnant saved by grace through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 32
- Rom 12:9Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
- 3 Jn 1:11Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
- Ps 97:10Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
- Joel 2:14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
- 1 Th 5:21–22Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
- Mic 5:7–8And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
- Rom 8:7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
- Mic 5:3Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
- 1 Kgs 20:31And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life.
- Ps 36:4He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
- 2 Kgs 19:4It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
- Jonah 3:9Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
- Exod 32:30And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
- Amos 5:24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
- Ps 34:14Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
- Jer 7:5–7For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
- Ps 82:2–4How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
- Mic 2:12I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
- Amos 6:12Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
- Jer 31:7For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
- Ps 119:104Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
- 2 Kgs 14:26–27For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
- Amos 5:10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
- 2 Kgs 13:7Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing.
- Amos 5:6Seek 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 Bethel.
- Rom 7:15–16For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
- 2 Sam 16:12It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day.
- 2 Chr 19:6–11And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.
- Ps 37:27Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
- Rom 7:22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
- Ps 139:21–22Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
- 2 Kgs 15:29In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
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Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 5:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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