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Amos 1

Before you read Amos: who, when, why

BOOK 30 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · MINOR PROPHETS

Rich People, Hear This

AUTHOR: Amos, a sheep breeder and fig grower from Tekoa in Judah, 1:1 and 7:14. God sent him north to Israel.
DATE: About 760 to 750 BC, in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel, two years before the earthquake, 1:1.
WRITTEN TO: Israel, the northern kingdom: the rich in Samaria and the worshipers at Bethel. The nations around hear their own warnings first.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS: Amos is in Qumran scrolls of the Twelve Prophets and in a small Amos scroll from Qumran Cave 5, copied before or about the time of Jesus, and in the Hebrew scroll of the Twelve from Wadi Murabbaat.
KEY VERSE: Amos 5:24. Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

The Oldest Copies of Amos

Pieces of 4QXII g, a scroll of the Twelve Prophets from Qumran Cave 4, copied in the last years before Jesus. It holds more of Amos than any other Qumran copy, though the plate does not mark which pieces are Amos. Amos is also in 4QXII c, in a small Amos scroll from Cave 5, and in the Murabbaat scroll of the Twelve. Photo Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

The Setting

Israel has never had it so good. King Jeroboam II has won back land, and the rich build winter houses and summer houses with ivory inside. Worship is booming at Bethel and Gilgal. But the poor are being sold for a pair of sandals, judges take bribes, and merchants cheat with false scales. God sends a farmer from Judah to tell the party it is over.

What Went Wrong

Crushing the Poor. They sold the needy, trampled the poor and cheated in the market, 2:6 to 7, 4:1 and 8:4 to 6.
Bribes in Court. Judges took bribes and turned justice into poison, 5:10 to 12 and 6:12.
Worship Without Justice. Busy feasts and songs, but God said I hate them, 4:4 to 5 and 5:21 to 23.
Idols And Star Gods. Sakkuth and Kaiwan, 5:26, and the calf at Dan, 8:14. The Greek Bible reads Moloch in 5:26, the god of child sacrifice, and Stephen quotes it that way, Acts 7:43.
Shushing the Prophets. They told the prophets not to prophesy, 2:12 and 7:12 to 13.

Where to Find Jesus

Amos 9:11 to 12. I will restore the fallen tent of David. James quotes it at the Jerusalem council to show that Gentiles are welcome in God's people through Jesus, Acts 15:13 to 18.
Amos 5:25 to 27. Stephen quotes Amos to show that Israel turned to idols even in the wilderness, Acts 7:42 to 43.
Amos 8:9 to 10. The sun going down at noon and mourning for an only son. Many Christians think of the darkness from noon until three, when Jesus, God's only Son, died, Matthew 27:45 to 50. Others read it only as judgment on Israel.
Amos 5:24. Justice and righteousness. Jesus said the weightier matters of the law are justice, mercy and faithfulness, Matthew 23:23.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

A Farmer, Not A Preacher. Amos says he was not a prophet or the son of a prophet, just a herdsman and fig grower God took from the flock, 7:14 to 15.
The Trap. Amos lists Israel's enemies one by one, and then the eighth nation on the list is Israel itself, 2:6.
A Famous Line. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Amos 5:24 in his I Have a Dream speech: until justice rolls down like waters.
The Earthquake. Amos dated his book by an earthquake, 1:1, and Zechariah still remembered it about 250 years later, Zechariah 14:5. See Amos's Earthquake.

How Does It End?

About 30 to 40 years after Amos, Assyria destroyed Samaria and carried Israel away, 722 BC, 2 Kings 17:6. But Amos ends with hope: God will rebuild David's fallen tent, make the hills drip with sweet wine, and plant His people in their land, never to be uprooted again, 9:11 to 15.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

A farmer from Judah stands up in Israel and starts reading God's charges against the neighbors: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon. The crowd loves it. Get them, Amos!

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyAmos's Earthquake · after verse 12

Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors// Jeremiah 12:14–17

¹These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. ²He said:

AMOS 1:1[ARCHAEOLOGY]A great earthquake about 760 BC left collapsed walls and fallen pillars at Hazor and other sites, and Zechariah 14:5 still remembered it, see Amos's Earthquake Field Notes page
AMOS 1:1[NOTE]SHEEPHERDERS OF TEKOA. Tekoa was a village in the hills of Judah, south of Bethlehem. Amos was from Judah but preached in Israel, the northern kingdom.
AMOS 1:1[NOTE]THE EARTHQUAKE. So big that people dated things by it. See Amos's Earthquake.

“Yahweh roars from Zion

and raises His voice from Jerusalem;

the pastures of the shepherds mourn,

and the summit of Carmel withers.”

AMOS 1:2[NOTE]YAHWEH ROARS. Amos's own opening words, so they are black. Joel 3:16 has the same line.

³This is what Yahweh says:

“For three transgressions of Damascus, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they threshed Gilead

with sledges of iron.

AMOS 1:3[PROPHECY]For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four... I will break the gate bar of Damascus → 2KI 16:9
AMOS 1:3[NOTE]FOR THREE SINS, EVEN FOUR. A Hebrew way of saying the cup is full and running over. Damascus crushed Gilead like grain under iron sledges, 2 Kings 10:32 to 33.

⁴So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael

to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.

⁵I will break down the gates of Damascus;

I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven

and the one who wields the scepter in Beth-eden.

The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir,”

says Yahweh.

⁶This is what Yahweh says:

“For three transgressions of Gaza, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they exiled a whole population,

delivering them up to Edom.

AMOS 1:6[PROPHECY]For three transgressions of Gaza... I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza → HISTORY: Tiglath pileser III of Assyria took Gaza in 734 BC. Sargon II took Ashdod in 711 BC. Recorded in the royal records of these Assyrian kings.
AMOS 1:6[NOTE]GAZA. The Philistines carried off whole villages and sold them to Edom as slaves.

⁷So I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza,

to consume its citadels.

⁸I will cut off the ruler of Ashdod

and the one who wields the scepter in Ashkelon.

I will turn My hand against Ekron,

and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,”

says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹This is what Yahweh says:

“For three transgressions of Tyre, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom

and broke a covenant of brotherhood.

AMOS 1:9[PROPHECY]For three transgressions of Tyre... I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre → HISTORY: Alexander the Great broke through the walls of Tyre and took it in 332 BC, and he ordered its buildings set on fire. Recorded by Arrian, Anabasis 2.24, and Curtius Rufus 4.4.
AMOS 1:9[NOTE]TYRE. They broke a covenant of brotherhood, maybe the old friendship of Hiram with David and Solomon, 1 Kings 5:12.

¹⁰So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre

to consume its citadels.”

¹¹This is what Yahweh says:

“For three transgressions of Edom, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because he pursued his brother with the sword

and stifled all compassion;

his anger raged continually,

and his fury flamed incessantly.

AMOS 1:11[PROPHECY]For three transgressions of Edom... I will send a fire upon Teman → HISTORY: King Nabonidus of Babylon marched against Edom about 553 BC. Found in the Nabonidus Chronicle and on a rock carving of Nabonidus at Sela in Jordan.MEDIUM
AMOS 1:11[NOTE]EDOM. Edom came from Esau, Jacob's brother, so Edom kept attacking his own brother Israel.

¹²So I will send fire upon Teman

to consume the citadels of Bozrah.”

Field Notes · Archaeology

Amos's Earthquake

Amos 1:1 · 8:8 · 9:1 · Zechariah 14:5

The pillared storehouse at Hazor, from the time of the kings of Israel. Photo Avishai Teicher, PikiWiki Israel, CC BY 2.5.

WHAT IT IS: A great earthquake that shook Israel and Judah in the 700s BC. Amos dates his book by it: two years before the earthquake, 1:1.
HOW OLD IT IS: About 760 BC, give or take some years, in the days of Uzziah and Jeroboam II.
WHAT WAS FOUND: At Hazor, Yigael Yadin's team found a layer from the 700s BC with tilted walls, fallen pillars and roofs caved in on the rooms, the kind of damage an earthquake leaves. Archaeologists have reported damage from about the same time at other sites in Israel and Judah too.
REMEMBERED FOR CENTURIES: About 250 years later Zechariah could still say, You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, Zechariah 14:5.
A LEGEND: The Jewish historian Josephus, about AD 93, linked the quake to the day King Uzziah went into the temple to burn incense and was struck with leprosy, 2 Chronicles 26:16 to 21. The Bible does not say that.
HOW BIG?: In 2000 the geologist Steven Austin and two others argued it was about magnitude 8, one of the biggest in the region's history, and dated it about 750 BC. Other scholars think it was smaller, or that the damage at different sites came from more than one quake.
THE SHAKING IN AMOS: Amos sees the land quake and heave like the Nile, 8:8, and the Lord ordering the pillars struck so that the thresholds shake, 9:1. The ruins in the photo show stone pillars like those.
WHAT IT SHOWS: Amos was a real man in a real time and place. His words came true soon enough that people remembered the shaking.
WHERE IS HAZOR?: North of the Sea of Galilee, on the main road from Egypt to Damascus. Solomon built it up as a fortress city, 1 Kings 9:15, and Assyria captured it about 732 BC, 2 Kings 15:29.
WHY STONE PILLARS?: Rows of stone pillars held up the roof of long halls used to store goods, or by some views to stable horses. When the ground shook, pillars and walls like these fell over.
SEE ALSO: Hazor Burned, Joshua, for the city's earlier fire.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE QUAKE, DEBATED FOR THE DETAILS

¹³This is what Yahweh says:

“For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four,

I will not revoke My judgment,

because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead

in order to enlarge their territory.

AMOS 1:13[PROPHECY]For three transgressions of Ammon... their king shall go into captivity → HISTORY: Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Ammon about 582 BC. Recorded by Josephus, Antiquities 10.9.7.MEDIUM
AMOS 1:13[NOTE]AMMON. They ripped open pregnant women just to grab more land. God sees war crimes.

¹⁴So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah

to consume its citadels

amid war cries on the day of battle

and a violent wind on the day of tempest.

¹⁵Their king will go into exile—

he and his princes together,”

says Yahweh.

Amos 1

The Oldest Copies of Amos

The Setting

What Went Wrong

Where to Find Jesus

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

How Does It End?

Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors// Jeremiah 12:14–17

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