amos Summary and Overview

borne; a burden, one of the twelve minor prophets. He was a native of Tekota, the modern Tekua, a town about 12 miles south-east of Bethlehem. He was a man of humble birth, neither a "prophet nor a prophet's son," but "an herdman and a dresser of sycomore trees," R.V. He prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and was contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea (Amos 1:1; 7:14, 15; Zech. 14:5), who survived him a few years. Under Jeroboam II. the kingdom of Israel rose to the zenith of its prosperity; but that was followed by the prevalence of luxury and vice and idolatry. At this period Amos was called from his obscurity to remind the people of the law of God's retributive justice, and to call them to repentance. The Book of Amos consists of three parts: (1.) The nations around are summoned to judgment because of their sins (1:1-2:3). He quotes Joel 3:16. (2.) The spiritual condition of Judah, and especially of Israel, is described (2:4-6:14). (3.) In 7:1-9:10 are recorded five prophetic visions. (a) The first two (7:1-6) refer to judgments against the guilty people. (b) The next two (7:7-9; 8:1-3) point out the ripeness of the people for the threatened judgements. 7:10-17 consists of a conversation between the prophet and the priest of Bethel. (c) The fifth describes the overthrow and ruin of Israel (9:1-10); to which is added the promise of the restoration of the kingdom and its final glory in the Messiah's kingdom. The style is peculiar in the number of the allusions made to natural objects and to agricultural occupations. Other allusions show also that Amos was a student of the law as well as a "child of nature." These phrases are peculiar to him: "Cleanness of teeth" [i.e., want of bread] (4:6); "The excellency of Jacob" (6:8; 8:7); "The high places of Isaac" (7:9); "The house of Isaac" (7:16); "He that createth the wind" (4:13). Quoted, Acts 7:42.

(burden), native of Tekoa in Judah, about six miles south of Bethlehem, originally a shepherd and dresser of sycamore trees, who was called by God s Spirit to be a prophet, although not trained in any of the regular prophetic schools. #Am 1:1; 7:14,15| He travelled from Judah into the northern kingdom of Israel or Ephraim, and there exercised his ministry, apparently not for any long time. (His date cannot be later than B.C. 808 for he lived in the reigns of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel; but his ministry probably took place at an earlier date, perhaps about the middle of Jeroboam's reign Nothing is known of the time or manner of his death.--ED.)

A'MOS (burden), one of the lesser prophets, herdsman of Tekoa, a small town in the tribe of Judah, about 12 miles south of Jerusalem. Am 1:1. He lived in the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, and of Jeroboam II., king of Israel, about eight hundred years before Christ. He was a contemporary of Hosea. While employed as a herdsman he was divinely appointed to prophesy against Israel. This kingdom then was in its heyday of prosperity, but by reason of its idolatry rife with the seeds of ruin. It was Amos's duty to speak plain words upon the evils of the state. Being driven from Bethel upon the false representation made to the king by the idolatrous Priest Amaziah. Am 7:10-7, he returned to Tekoa. The time and manner of his death are uncertain. Amos, Prophecy of, is the thirtieth in the order of the books of the Old Testament, and is full of interest and instruction. It may be considered as a sort of continuation of Joel's. It is a unit. It begins with the declaration of God's judgments against Israel's neighbors. But in this storm of fury Judah does not escape while Israel stands the brunt of it. Am 1-2:6. The sins of Israel are rebuked. Am 2:6-6:14. The rebukes are followed by a series of symbols, which are interpreted. Am 7:1-9:7. But the book closes with the promise of good. The "tabernacle of David" is to be restored. Thus the beauty and perpetuity of the Christian Church are foretold. It has been remarked as a peculiar feature of this prophecy that it abounds with illustrations drawn from husbandry and the scenes of rustic life; it certainly contains some of the most perfect specimens of sublime thought and beautiful expression that are to be found in any language.

("a burden".) Of Tekoah, in Judah, six miles S.E. of Bethlehem. A shepherd (probably owning flocks) and dresser of sycamore fig trees; specially called of the Lord to prophesy, though not educated in the prophets' schools (Amos 1:1; Amos 7:14-15). These personal notices occur only as connected with the discharge of his prophetic function; so entirely is self put in the shade by the inspired men of God, and God is made the one all-absorbing theme. Though of Judah, he exercised his ministry in the northern kingdom, Israel; not later than the 15th year of Uzziah of Judah, when Jeroboam II. (son of Joash) of Israel died (compare 1 Kings 14:23 with 1 Kings 15:1), in whose reign it is written he prophesied "two years before the earthquake"; compare Zechariah 14:5. Allusions to the earthquake appear in Amos 5:8; Amos 6:11; Amos 8:8; Amos 9:1; Amos 9:5. The divine sign in his view confirmed his words, which were uttered before, and which now after the earthquake were committed to writing in an orderly summary. The natural world, being from and under the same God, shows a mysterious sympathy with the spiritual world; compare Matthew 24:7; Matthew 27:50-54. Probably Amos prophesied about the middle of Jeroboam's reign, when his conquests had been achieved (Amos 6:13-14; compare 2 Kings 14:25-27), just before Assyria's first attack on Israel, for he does not definitely name that power: Amos 1:5; Amos 5:27 (Hosea 10:6; Hosea 11:5). The two forces from God acted simultaneously by His appointment, the invading hosts from without arresting Israel's attention for the prophet's message from God within the land, and the prophets showing the spiritual meaning of those invasions, as designed to lead Israel to repentance. This accounts for the outburst of prophetic fire in Uzziah's and his successors' reigns. The golden calves, the forbidden representation of Jehovah, not Baal, were the object of worship in Jeroboam's reign, as being the great grandson of Jehu, who had purged out Baal worship, but retained the calves. Israel, as abounding in impostors, needed the more true prophets of God from Judah to warn her. Her prophets often fled to Judah from fear of her kings. Oppression, luxury, weariness of religious ordinances as interrupting worldly pursuits, were rife: Amos 8:4-5; Amos 3:15. The king's sanctuary and summer palace were at Bethel (Amos 7:13); here Amos was opposed by Amaziah for his faithful reproofs, and informed against to Jeroboam. (See AMAZIAH.) Like the prophet in 1 Kings 13, Amos went up from Judah to Bethel to denounce the idol calf at the risk of his life. Calf worship prevailed also at Dan, Gilgal, and Beersheba, in Judah (Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5; Amos 8:14), blended with Jehovah's worship (Amos 5:14; Amos 5:21-26); 2 Kings 17:32-33, compare Ezekiel 20:39. The book is logically connected, and is divisible into four parts. Amos 1:1 to Amos 2:13; the sins of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, the neighbors of Israel and Judah Amos 2:4 to Amos 6:14; Israel's own state and consequent punishment; the same coasts "from the entering in of Hamath," which Jeroboam has just recovered from Syria, shall be "afflicted," and the people carried into "captivity beyond Damascus" (Amos 5:27). Amos 7:1-9:10; Amos's visions of grasshoppers devouring the grass, and fire the land and deep, both removed by his intercession; the plumb line marking the buildings for destruction; Amaziah's interruption at Bethel, and foretold doom; the basket of summer fruits marking Israel's end by the year's end; the Lord standing upon the altar, and commanding the lintel to be smitten, symbolizing Israel's destruction as a kingdom, but individually not one righteous man shall perish. Amos 9:11-15; David's fallen tabernacle shall be raised, the people re-established in prosperity in their own land, no more to be pulled out, and the conversion of the pagan shall follow the establishment of the theocracy finally; compare Amos 9:12 with Acts 15:17. Reference to agricultural life and the phenomena of nature abounds, in consonance with his own former occupation, an undesigned propriety and mark of truth: Amos 1:3; Amos 2:13; Amos 3:4-5; Amos 4:2; Amos 4:7; Amos 4:9; Amos 5:18-19; Amos 6:12; Amos 7:1; Amos 9:3; Amos 9:9; Amos 9:13-14. The first six chapters are without figure; the last three symbolical, with the explanation subjoined. He assumes his readers' knowledge of the Pentateuch, and that the people's religious ritual (excepting the golden calves) accords with the Mosaic law, an incidental confirmation of the truth of the Pentateuch. Stephen (Acts 7:42) quotes Amos 5:25-27; and James (Acts 15:16) quotes Amos 9:11. Philo, Josephus, the Talmud, Justin Martyr, the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the council of Laodicea, confirm the canonicity of Amos. His use of the names Adonai (Lord) and God of hosts marks that Jehovah, Israel's covenant God, is universal Lord. Characteristic and peculiar phrases occur: "cleanness of teeth," i.e., want of bread (Amos 4:6); "the excellency of Jacob" (Amos 6:8; Amos 8:7); "the high places of Isaac" (Amos 7:9), "the house of Isaac" (Amos 7:16); "he that createth the wind" (Amos 4:13). Hosea, his contemporary, survived him a few years.