Amos 5:4-6*

Pete and Bec saw this recently

A – For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel,

B – Seek ye me, and ye shall live

C – But seek not Bethel,

D – nor enter into Gilgal,

E – and pass not to Beersheba:

D’ – for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,

C’ – and Bethel shall come to nought.

B’ – Seek the LORD, and ye shall live;

A – lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph

Pete suggests that the prophet  Amos is warning the people to turn to nobody else except “Yahweh, the God of Armies”, and don’t presume either that you can go to the southern most tip of Judah, Beersheba (8:14) and find refuge there. As the Assyrian looms ever larger in the North, Israel is becoming a land in the shadow of death (5:8). The only hope is to ‘seek the LORD’ and His ways (5:14) – contrast the ways of Beersheba (8:14).

Note: as a result of this we have searched and found the same chiasm in Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 27, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 170-177,  THE CHIASTIC STRUCTURE OF AMOS V 1-17, J.DE WAARD.

Also,  “Poet and Peasant” by Kenneth Bailey, 1976, has B-B’ as above.