Amos

n. (Abbr. Am)
A book of the Bible.

[After AMOS¹.]

Amos

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Amos (active 8th century B.C.), the first of the literary prophets of ancient Israel, was the author of the biblical book bearing his name.

Amos was born in the Judean town of Tekoa, near modern Bethlehem, Israel. His activities probably took place during the reign of Uzziah, also called Azariah, King of Judah (reigned 783-742 B.C.), and Jeroboam II, King of Israel (reigned 786-745).

In his youth Amos was a shepherd. As a young man he tells of having received a divine commandment to go to the Israelite shrine at Bethel. Once there, he proceeded to fulminate against the popular errors of his day and was ousted by the head priest, Amaziah. Apparently, Amos was a prophet for only a short time, and he did not write down his prophetic messages and utterances. At that time, oracles such as those of Amos were preserved in an oral tradition; that is, they were transmitted by spoken word among Temple circles at Jerusalem. Amos's prophecies were probably written down before the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.

His oracles are preserved in the biblical book of Amos, which is traditionally placed at the beginning of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Chronologically Amos is the earliest of these prophets, and his book offered a pattern for later prophetic books. The nine chapters are written in a poetic style with a prose introduction. They contain three kinds of composition: oracles telling of impending doom against Judah, Israel, and the neighboring peoples; a brief description of the life of the prophet; and a few verses that scholars generally agree are later additions.

Amos was particularly preoccupied with the moral corruption of his generation and their theological misconceptions. He denounced the corrupt aristocracy and its total neglect of the poor. He criticized those who made sacrifices to God but hypocritically neglected the moral law. He inveighed against those who presumed that they need give no accounting to God for their actions because they were His Chosen People. Above all, Amos shocked his contemporaries by dissociating his message and work from the prophets of his day and by foretelling doom and destruction for Israel. As a counterbalance to this apocalyptic message, Amos also predicted the restoration of the Davidic kingdom and the return of the Exiles. It is at this point that one can find a universalism in Amos which appears again for the first time in vivid form in the writings of Deutero-Isaiah. The God of Amos was not limited to one nation.

Amos has always been important in both Jewish and Christian theology and beliefs. The Talmud (Makkot 24a) states that all 613 commandments of Judaism are contained in one admonition of Amos: "Seek Me and live." Amos is quoted in the New Testament and by the early Christian Church Fathers, who interpreted him as prophesying the doom of Judaism and the rise of Christianity.

Further Reading

Discussions of Amos include R. S. Cripps, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Amos (1929; 2d ed. 1955); Julian Morgenstern, Amos Studies, vol. 1 (1941); Arvid S. Kapelrud, Central Ideas in Amos (1956); Norman H. Snaith, Amos, Hosea, and Micah (1956); John D. W. Watts, Vision and Prophecy in Amos (1958); and James M. Ward, Amos and Isaiah: Prophets of the Word of God (1969). Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets (1962), devotes a chapter to Amos. Background information is in Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament (1957; 2d ed. 1966).

(mid-eighth cent. BCE). First of the literary or "writing" Prophets. A Judean, engaged in raising livestock and growing fruit at Tekoa, he was entrusted with the Divine mission of preaching repentance to sinful inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. Having witnessed the demoralization brought about by a hollow, corrupt form of religion and by a wealthy, parasitical ruling class, Amos repeatedly admonished the priests and worshipers at the shrine in Bethel with telling prophecies of their impending doom. Responsibility, not privilege, was meant by the election of Israel: "You alone have I singled out from all the families on earth, which is why I will make you accountable for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). A generation before Samaria's collapse, he predicted its terrible fate (3:15, 7:9). The first prophet to invoke the concept of exile (Galut), Amos likewise foresaw the grim fate of Israel's inhabitants (7:17), warning that true religion cannot be divorced from a just and moral society: "I loathe, I spurn your festivals.... If you offer Me burnt offerings or meal offerings, I will not accept them.... Spare Me the sound of your hymns, and let Me not hear the music of your lutes. But let justice well up like water, righteousness like an unfailing stream" (5:21-24). The king forced this disturber of the peace to quit the realm (7:10-13) and it was presumably later, in Tekoa, that Amos recorded his prophecies in the book bearing his name, which appears (unchronologically) as the third of the Minor Prophets.

Amos was a great social reformer with a lofty conception of God, humanity, and the ethical imperatives of Judaism. The Book of Amos proclaims a universal God who will no more overlook the transgressions of His own people than He will those of other nations (ch. 1-2). Material prosperity acquired by exploiting the poor and the underprivileged testifies neither to Divine favor nor to man's godly conduct. Man's aim should be to "hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate" (ch. 3-6). Amos denounces religious hypocrisy (8:4-6) and stresses the urgency of repentance to avert ultimate calamity (ch. 7-8). An epilogue (ch. 9) contains the vision of a future Golden Age in which social justice and the "fallen Davidic tabernacle" will both be restored when God and His surviving people are finally reconciled.

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1. A prophet who denounced King Jeroboam II and wealthy officials for oppressing the poor people of Israel. Amos was a Judean who pursued his prophetic activity in northern Israel, especially at Bethel. His home was the small village of Tekoa, 10 miles (16 km) south of Jerusalem. According to Amos 7:14 prior to his being selected by God to prophecy, he worked as a herdsman, and was also a dresser of sycamore trees, slitting their fruit in order to accelerate the ripening process. Since sycamore figs did not grow in Tekoa, but thrived in lower altitudes, Amos must have traveled some distance from home in order to carry out his work. His call to prophesy occurred sometime during the middle of the 8th century B.C. during a period of prosperity and national expansion rivaled only by the era of Solomon. But the military victories, construction of elegant houses, and endless feasting was only one side of the picture. Amos saw the deeper implications of these circumstances: the poor who suffered at the hands of the land-grabbing rich; and the disparity between people who feasted and those who went hungry. He laid much of the blame on the wealthy minority. When he once went so far as to predict the death of King Jeroboam, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel transmitted the threat to the king (Amos 7:10-17). Although Amaziah accused Amos of conspiracy, he nevertheless urged the seer to flee south of Judah and carry on his prophetic endeavor there. Bethel was effectively ruled "off limits" to him, for it was the royal sanctuary. Amos objected that he was not a professional prophet but that the Lord had taken him from his secular vocation and given him specific orders to prophesy against Israel (cf Amos 3:8). The prophet then announced an awful fate for Amaziah and his family: his wife would become a harlot, his sons and daughters slain, and Amaziah himself would die in an alien land, having seen his own property taken from him. (See AMOS, BOOK OF).

2. Son of Nahum and father of Mattathiah, from the genealogy of Jesus.

Concordance
AMOS 1: Amos 1:1; 7:8,10-12, 14; 8:2
AMOS 2: Luke 3:25

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