Seek the Lord and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, with no one to extinguish the fire for the house of Israel. The Lord is He who brings about justice on high and righteousness on the earth!… They hated him who reproved in the gates and abhorred the upright word. They tread upon the poor and take bribes from him. They built houses of hewn stone, yet they shall not dwell in them. They planted pleasant vineyards, but they shall not drink wine from them. For I know your many transgressions and the enormity of your sins, devouring the righteous and taking bribes, turning away the poor at the gate. Because of this, the prudent keep silent in this time, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil so that you may live, so that the Lord God Almighty will be with you. As you have said, “We hated evil and loved good.” And restore justice in the gate that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:6–7, 10–15)
Once again he does not allow the sinners to get caught up in despair, despite being involved in dire and intolerable sins. He also conveys God’s promises so as to land them as a catch for repentance. He also presented him here as necessarily promising to forgive their sins and free them from both the penalty and the terrors associated with it. The Creator, after all, is kind, “long-suffering and rich in mercy, and repenting of the troubles,” as it is written, and as he himself says in Ezekiel, “He does not wish the death of the dying so much as to convert him from his wicked path and have him live.” If, therefore, you set great store by being alive, which seems desirable for you to be, desist from deception, abandon such longstanding ignorance, and seek Me out, he is saying—that is, serve Me, the one who is by nature God, the Life-giver, the one able to save, rescuing from every trouble those who reverence Me.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Amos 5
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