Amos
Minor Prophets · Old Testament · Book 30 of 66- Author
- Amos, a herdsman of Tekoa
- Written
- c. 755 BC
- Time covered
- c. 760–750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II
- Where
- Sent from Judah north to Israel, chiefly Bethel
- Written to
- A wealthy, comfortable, religiously busy nation
- Genre
- Prophecy
- Chapters
- 9
“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”Amos 5:24 KJV
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Overview
Amos was no professional prophet — a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, sent from the southern countryside to the northern capital during its most prosperous years.
He opens by pronouncing judgment on Israel’s neighbors one by one, which his hearers would have enjoyed, and then turns the same words on them. Their crime is not idolatry alone but injustice: selling the poor for a pair of shoes while keeping the feasts faithfully.
Background
Jeroboam II’s reign was long and successful. Borders were secure, trade was good, and the rich built summer houses and winter houses with beds of ivory.
That prosperity rested on courts that could be bought and merchants who tampered with their scales. Forty years later Assyria carried the nation away.
Key themes
- God judges the nations, and holds His own people to a higher account.
- Worship without justice is offensive to God.
- Prosperity can be a warning sign rather than a blessing.
- The day of the LORD will be darkness, not light, for those who presume on it.
- After judgment, God promises to raise up the fallen tent of David.
Outline
- Judgment on the nationsChapters 1–2
For three transgressions and for four — Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and then Israel.
- Three sermonsChapters 3–6
You only have I known — therefore; the cows of Bashan; woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
- Five visionsChapters 7–9
Locusts, fire, a plumbline, summer fruit, and the Lord standing upon the altar — with Amaziah telling him to go home.
- RestorationChapter 9
The sieve, and the tabernacle of David raised up again.
Key passages
- Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
- Amos 3:7 The Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
- Amos 4:12 Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
- Amos 5:21-24 I hate, I despise your feast days — let judgment run down as waters.
- Amos 7:7-8 A plumbline in the midst of my people.
- Amos 7:14-15 I was no prophet — the LORD took me as I followed the flock.
- Amos 8:11 A famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
- Amos 9:11 I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen.
Christ in Amos
James quoted the tabernacle of David raised up at the Jerusalem council, arguing that God had always meant to gather Gentiles into it. And the book’s insistence that God wants justice rather than ceremony is the same charge Jesus brought against the religious leaders of His own day.
Reading it
- Read chapters 1–2 straight through to feel the trap closing.
- Notice that Amos never claims a title; he says only that God took him.
- Read 5:21-24 slowly if you have ever thought attendance was enough.