Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 5:8

"[seek him] that maketh the Pleiades 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 (Jehovah is his name);" — Amos 5:8 (ASV)

Connected by the English Version with Amos 5:6 through the verb seek ye, so that it may thus be linked to Amos 5:7. To regard it as a solemn assertion “There is one who makes, etc.,” is not satisfactory. We prefer to render, As for him who made the Pleiades ... Jehovah is his name; that is, the God of the Hebrews is the supreme universal Lord . This is profoundly impressive, since the prophets were surrounded by the pompous nature-worship of the East.

The Hebrew word for the Pleiades (seven stars) properly means “heap” or “cluster,” and that for Orion signifies “stout, strong one.” The appearance of the Pleiades indicated the sweet influences of spring, that of Orion the winter solstice. Observe that Amos the herdsman, and Job the Arabian Emir, accustomed to the naked sky of the desert, make these special references to astronomical facts. The death-shadow suggests the darkest experiences of human life. Jehovah pours His light upon the deepest gloom of our lot. He, too, can make the day dark with night, covering the noonday sky with a funereal pall, as at the Crucifixion. God is also the perennial source of the rain, that river of God which is full of water, which is ever rising at His command from the great sea.