The final clause is best read as ironic citation rather than endorsement. The jussive sequence of the verse—“seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so it shall be” (wîhî-khen)—sets the condition for life, and only then comes the assertion that YHWH ṣĕbāʾôt is “with you” (ʾittkem), followed by the telling qualification, “as you have said” (kaʾăsher ʾamartem). Amos is not creating a new promise detached from the rebuke that precedes it; he is confronting a people who are willing to confess covenant language while ignoring the covenant demands that define that relationship. The divine presence of “the LORD God of Hosts” is not denied, but it is portrayed as something Israel has presumed upon verbally while refusing the ethical reality that would make such language true in any meaningful covenant sense. The title “LORD God of Hosts” heightens the point. YHWH ṣĕbāʾôt evokes the God who commands heavenly and earthly forces and therefore cannot be manipulated by ritual formula or patriotic confidence. In Amos, claims to divine nearness are consistently judged by covenant faithfulness, not by possession of the name, the sanctuary, or the memory of election. Thus “as you have said” likely echoes Israel’s own assurances of safety and election, perhaps tied to the temple theology that presumed YHWH’s presence in their midst. Amos turns that speech back on them: if they truly seek good and shun evil, then the presence they claim will correspond to reality; if not, the formula is empty. The verse therefore binds together ethics and presence in a way central to prophetic covenant theology: divine accompaniment is not an unconditional slogan but the lived expression of fidelity to the God who speaks.