Amos 8:12

wander go tottering (comp. on Amos 4:8), with allusion to the uncertain gait of persons partly (Amos 8:13) exhausted, and partly bewildered, not knowing where to find what they are in search of (cf. Lamentations 4:15).

from sea to sea i.e. from the Dead Sea, the S. limit of the kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 14:25), to the Mediterranean, its western boundary.

and from the north even to the sun-rising] returning thus to the point from which they started, and so completing the circuit of the land.

to seek the word of Jehovah] The expression may be illustrated from 1 Kings 22:5 (Jehoshaphat) "Inquire, I pray thee, first of the word of Jehovah," Amos 8:7 "Is there not here besides a prophet of Jehovah that we might inquire of him?" (similarly 2 Kings 3:11); from the phrase "the word of Jehovah is with" such and such a prophet, 2 Kings 3:12; Jeremiah 27:18; and from the question put by Zedekiah in his anxiety to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:17) "Is there a word from Jehovah?"

and shall not find it Cf. 1 Samuel 28:6 (of Saul); Ezekiel 7:26.