Amos 5:6 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Seek the Lord, and ye shall life: the prophet repeateth his exhortation to repentance with the repeated promise of a good issue hereon: see Amos 5:4. Lest he break out: this is a new argument to persuade them to do their duty, for unless they do it God's judgments will break out upon them. Like fire; suddenly, with strength and prevalence, as the Hebrew word here rendered break out importeth. In the house of Joseph; the kingdom of the ten tribes, the chief whereof was Ephraim, who was the younger son of Joseph, and the first erecter of this kingdom was an Ephraimite, 1 Kings 11:26. And devour it; utterly consume it, as fire useth to do where it gets head and prevaileth. And there be none to quench it in Beth-el; if once this fire break out from God, all your idols in Beth-el shall not be able to quench it; no tears from your eyes there shed, no blood of sacrifice there offered, shall quench it.