Old Testament · Minor Prophets · Book 30 of 66

Amos

A shepherd from Judah carries God’s word to wealthy, comfortable Israel: the LORD sees how the poor are crushed, he rejects worship without justice, and judgment is coming, yet he promises to rebuild David’s fallen shelter.

9 Chapters

Amos 1–9

Author

Amos, a shepherd of Tekoa

Written

c. 760–750 B.C.

Written For

The northern kingdom of Israel

Overview

Amos Summary

Amos was a shepherd and fig grower from Tekoa, a small town in the hills of Judah. Around 760 B.C., God sent him north to preach to the kingdom of Israel during the long reign of Jeroboam II. Israel was enjoying peace and wealth it had not known for generations. Its borders had been restored, its merchants were busy, and its shrines at Bethel and Gilgal were full of worshipers. To most people it looked like proof that God was pleased with them. Amos came with a very different message: God had seen how the poor were being crushed, he was not impressed by worship that ignored justice, and judgment was coming.

The book opens with a roar: “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem” (1:2), words that echo Joel 3:16. Chapters 1–2 then announce judgment on the nations around Israel, each message beginning, “For three sins of… even for four, I will not relent.” Amos names Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab, and condemns them for war crimes and cruelty: selling whole communities into slavery, breaking a treaty of brotherhood, ripping open pregnant women to extend a border (1:3–2:3). His listeners in Israel would have agreed with every word. Then the circle tightens. Judah, Israel’s southern neighbor, is judged for rejecting the law of the LORD (2:4–5), and finally the eighth message lands on Israel itself.

Israel’s sins are not the war crimes of its neighbors but injustice at home. “They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed” (2:6–7). God reminds them of all he had done, bringing them out of Egypt, giving them the land and raising up prophets, yet they silenced the prophets (2:9–12). On the day of judgment, not even the swift or the brave will escape (2:13–16).

Chapters 3–6 contain five messages to Israel. Three begin “Hear this word” (3:1; 4:1; 5:1) and two begin “Woe” (5:18; 6:1). The first explains why Israel will be judged more strictly, not less: “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins” (3:2). Amos must speak, because “the lion has roared, who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken, who can but prophesy?” (3:8). The rich women of Samaria, whom he calls “cows of Bashan,” oppress the poor while they call for drinks (4:1). God had sent famine, drought, blight, plague and disaster as warnings, and five times the refrain comes: “yet you have not returned to me” (4:6–11). So, “prepare to meet your God, Israel” (4:12).

Chapter 5 begins with a funeral song for Israel, sung while the nation still feels strong (5:1–3). Yet the door is still open: “Seek me and live” (5:4). “Seek good, not evil, that you may live… Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy” (5:14–15). Many in Israel were eager for “the day of the LORD,” expecting it to bring victory over their enemies. Amos warns that it will be “darkness, not light” for them (5:18–20). God says he hates their festivals and will not accept their offerings or listen to their songs. “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (5:24). The second woe falls on those who are complacent, lounging on beds of ivory, drinking wine by the bowlful and anointing themselves with fine oils, but who “do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph” (6:1–6). They will be the first to go into exile (6:7).

Chapters 7–9 record five visions. In the first two, locusts and fire, Amos prays, “Sovereign LORD, forgive!” and the LORD relents (7:1–6). In the third God holds a plumb line against Israel, like a builder testing a wall, and the wall is crooked: “I will spare them no longer” (7:7–9). Between the visions comes the only story in the book. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, accuses Amos of conspiracy and tells him to go back to Judah and prophesy there. Amos answers that he was “neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,” only a shepherd whom the LORD sent (7:10–17). The fourth vision is a basket of ripe summer fruit: “The time is ripe for my people Israel” (8:1–2). Merchants who can hardly wait for the Sabbath to end so they can cheat with false scales will face “a famine of hearing the words of the LORD” (8:4–12). In the fifth vision the LORD stands by the altar, and no one can hide from him (9:1–4).

The book does not end in ruin. God will shake Israel “as grain is shaken in a sieve,” but “not a pebble will reach the ground” (9:9), and he will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob (9:8). “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter… and will rebuild it as it used to be” (9:11). The mountains will drip new wine, the exiles will rebuild their ruined cities, and God will plant his people “in their own land, never again to be uprooted” (9:13–15), words that again echo Joel (Joel 3:18).

Several themes run through the book. Justice and righteousness: how people treat the poor matters to God as much as how they worship him (5:24). Worship and life belong together: sacrifices, songs and festivals mean nothing to God when they are joined to oppression (4:4–5; 5:21–23). Privilege brings responsibility: being chosen by God is no shield from judgment (3:2). God rules all nations: he judges Israel’s neighbors for their cruelty, and he made the stars and the sea (5:8; 9:7). The day of the LORD: it is not automatically good news for God’s people (5:18–20). Hope beyond judgment: God will rebuild what he has torn down (9:11–15). The New Testament picks up Amos twice. Stephen quotes 5:25–27 in his speech before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:42–43), and James quotes 9:11–12 at the council in Jerusalem to show that God always meant to bring Gentiles into his people (Acts 15:13–18). Jesus’ warnings about wealth, and James’s about the rich who mistreat workers (James 5:1–6), carry the same concerns as Amos.

Readers understand some parts of Amos in different ways. “For three sins… even for four” is a Hebrew way of saying “sin upon sin” or “the measure is full”; most do not think Amos meant an exact count. The rebuilt “shelter” or “tent” of David (9:11) is read by some as fulfilled in Christ and the church, as James used it in Acts 15, by others as a future restoration of Israel, and by many as both. The hopeful ending (9:11–15) is held by most traditional readers to come from Amos himself, while some scholars think it was added later (see the Author card). Amos’s answer to Amaziah (7:14) has no verb in Hebrew, so it can mean “I was not a prophet” or “I am not a prophet”; either way, Amos is saying that God, not a profession, sent him. Amos 5:25 (“Did you bring me sacrifices… forty years in the wilderness?”) is read by some as saying sacrifice was not the heart of Israel’s early faith, and by others as recalling that even then Israel’s worship was mixed with idolatry, as Stephen used it in Acts 7. This outline simply follows the text.

Amos at a Glance

The whole book on one page: its three parts, the eight messages to the nations, the five visions, worship God rejects and what he wants, and the key themes.

About the Name

Title

Amos probably means “burden” or “burden-bearer.” The book is named after the prophet and is the third of the twelve Minor Prophets, after Joel and before Obadiah.

The book is named after the prophet. His Hebrew name, ‘Amos, comes from a verb meaning “to carry a load,” so it is usually explained as “burden” or “burden-bearer.” Some add the thought that God carries his people, though the name itself does not say so. Amos is the only person with this name in the Old Testament, and he should not be confused with Amoz, the father of Isaiah, whose name is spelled differently in Hebrew.

In English and Hebrew Bibles Amos is the third of the twelve Minor Prophets, after Joel and before Obadiah. “Minor” refers to the books’ shorter length, not their importance. In the Hebrew Bible the twelve form one book, the Book of the Twelve, among the Latter Prophets; the Greek Septuagint places Amos second, right after Hosea. The New Testament quotes Amos twice in the book of Acts: Stephen cites 5:25–27 (Acts 7:42–43), and James cites 9:11–12 at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:16–17).

Who Wrote It

Author Details

Amos, a shepherd and fig grower from Tekoa in Judah (1:1; 7:14), wrote the book. God sent him north to preach in Israel at Bethel. This page follows the traditional view.

The book opens, “The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa” (1:1). Tekoa was a small town in the hills of Judah, about ten miles south of Jerusalem, on the edge of the wilderness. The word used for “shepherd” here is rare and is also used of King Mesha of Moab, a sheep breeder (2 Kings 3:4), so Amos may have owned or managed flocks rather than simply tending them. He also took care of sycamore-fig trees (7:14). He was not a trained prophet: “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet… But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (7:14–15). So a man from the southern kingdom of Judah was sent to preach in the northern kingdom of Israel, at the royal shrine of Bethel, until the priest Amaziah ordered him to go home (7:10–13).

Jewish and Christian tradition accepts Amos as the author, and the book speaks in his voice, including the first-person reports of his visions (7:1–8:3). Many scholars agree that most of the book goes back to Amos himself but think his words were collected and arranged by others, perhaps with later additions such as the message to Judah (2:4–5), the short hymns of praise (4:13; 5:8–9; 9:5–6) and the hopeful ending (9:11–15). Others reply that these passages fit Amos’s message and style, and that a prophet of judgment could also speak of restoration. This page follows the traditional view.

When It Was Written

Date of Writing

Written c. 760–750 B.C., “two years before the earthquake,” when Uzziah ruled Judah and Jeroboam II ruled Israel (1:1), a time of prosperity, injustice and false security.

Amos is one of the easier prophets to date, because the first verse names the kings and a memorable event. He prophesied “when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel,” and “two years before the earthquake” (1:1). Uzziah reigned c. 792–740 B.C. and Jeroboam II c. 793–753 B.C., so Amos spoke while both were on the throne. The earthquake was so severe that people still remembered it more than two hundred years later (Zechariah 14:5), and archaeologists have found signs of a strong earthquake around 760 B.C. at Hazor and other sites.

The traditional view dates Amos’s preaching to about 760 B.C. and the writing of the book soon after, c. 760–750 B.C. His ministry may have been short, perhaps a year or less. It was a time of peace and prosperity for Israel. Jeroboam II had restored its borders (2 Kings 14:25), Assyria was weak for a time, and the rich built winter and summer houses decorated with ivory (3:15). But the wealth was not shared, and the poor were crushed. About forty years later, in 722 B.C., Assyria destroyed Samaria and took Israel into exile, as Amos had warned (5:27). Some scholars think the book reached its final form later, during or after the exile, but the setting of the messages is clearly the reign of Jeroboam II.

Study Guide

Amos Outline

9 chapters in three parts: judgment on the nations, ending with Israel (1–2), messages to Israel, “Hear this word” and “Woe” (3–6), and five visions with a promise of restoration (7–9). Tap any section to expand it, and tap a verse reference to read it at BibleGateway.

Part I