The first verse in this paragraph is a confirmation, if it were needed, of what I advanced in my observations on the former. Seeking the Lord, implies the hope of finding him, and indeed the promise is of life. For the Lord hath never said to the praying seed of Jacob, seek ye my face in vain. Psalms 27:8. It is a sure sign of returning grace, when such rich proclamations come from the throne. See Isaiah 55:6-7. There is a great beauty in the allusion to the planets, those faithful nightly witnesses of heaven. Job speaketh of him that gives to the Pleiades, and Orion, their sweet influences. Job 38:31. And as those heavenly bodies testify to God's faithfulness concerning his covenant of day and night; so the Lord engageth to be gracious to his people when they call upon him. Genesis 8:22. I beg the Reader to remark with me, how again the Lord engageth that his people shall live in seeking him, and that as the Lord of hosts he will be with them. The wailing and mourning in all the streets that are spoken of, do not only refer to the desolations of Jerusalem as a city; but also to the sorrow of the soul, under the awakenings of the Holy Ghost, when the heart is leading under a sense of sin to the Lord.
Amos 5:4-17
4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6 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 Bethel.
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
9 That strengtheneth the spoileda against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasantb vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe,c and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14 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.
15 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.
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.