Amos

Name, Authorship, Date of Composition, and Historical Context

The book of Amos is a compilation of sayings attributed to the prophet Amos, who was active in the first half of the eighth century bce, during the long and peaceful reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel (788–747 bce; Am 1.1) and Uzziah of Judah (785–733 bce). In this period, Israel attained a height of territorial expansion and national prosperity never again reached. At the same time, this prosperity led to gross inequities between urban elite and the poor. Through manipulation of debt and credit, wealthy landowners amassed capital and estates at the expense of small farmers. The smallest debt served as the thin edge of a wedge that lenders could use to separate farmers from their patrimonial lands and to deprive them of personal liberty.

Into this scene stepped Amos, himself a farmer and herder from Tekoa, a small village in Judah, who was probably active as a prophet during the decade 760–750 bce. Amos denounced the society of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in vivid language, bitterly describing the decadent opulence, immorality, and smug piety of the elite who “trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth” (2.7). Amos's program, in contrast, called for “justice” and “righteousness” (5.7,24; 6.12), terms that connote social equality and concern for the disadvantaged (Isa 5.7; Mic 6.8). Amos also condemned impure religion, which for him and the other prophets meant worship of deities other than the Lord, the use of images (5.26) to represent God, and worship at illicit shrines (3.14; 4.4).

The narrative about Amos's encounter with Amaziah (7.1–7) and the superscription (1.1) yield the only portrait of the prophet. A native of the Southern Kingdom of Judah who raised livestock and tended fruit trees, Amos prophesied to and in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. At the royal sanctuary of Bethel (7.13), his bitter invective, voiced as a divine word (“I hate, I despise your festivals,” 5.21) no doubt scandalized pilgrims from Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom. His confrontation with the priest Amaziah remains one of the unforgettable scenes in biblical prophecy. Expelled from Bethel and commanded not to prophesy there again, Amos perhaps returned to Judah where he, or like-minded scribes, wrote down the essence of his public preaching in substantially its present form.

Although the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah were relatively peaceful and prosperous in Israel and Judah, the region experienced calamitous upheaval shortly thereafter when Tiglath-pileser III assumed the throne in Assyria (745–727 bce). He began the period of Assyria's greatest expansion in the west, including conquering the smaller kingdoms of Syria-Palestine. His successors, Shalmaneser V (727–722) and Sargon II (722–705), invaded the Northern Kingdom and conquered Samaria in 722. Within a few decades of Amos's prophetic activity, the Northern Kingdom saw devastation and destruction which made his foreboding words all the more sobering.

Location in Canon

Amos's prophetic career was roughly contemporaneous with that of Hosea, though Amos probably preceded him. Chronologically, then, Amos inaugurated the era of classical prophecy. In the Septuagint the book of Amos directly follows Hosea. The traditional arrangement of the Book of the Twelve (see p. 971) in the Masoretic Text and in English translations, however, is based not solely on chronology but often on specific verbal similarities or catchwords that link the end of one book to the beginning of the next. Amos is linked to the preceding book of Joel by identical phrases (see Joel 3.16a and Am 1.2a) and to the following book of Obadiah by a similar subject (Edom in Am 9.12 and in Ob 1).

Structure and Contents

The book of Amos has three major parts: chs 1–2 are presented as a single speech, an ethical tour of the region from the divine perspective, which climaxes in judgment on Israel itself; chs 3–6 are the least unified section, a collection of short prophetic sayings indicting Israel for sin and injustice; chs 7–9 contain the visions of Amos, as well as the Amaziah narrative (7.10–17), and a final speech of comfort (9.11–15) addressed not to Israel but to Judah. The best approach for readers is to follow the sequence of the book itself. The book contains a variety of material. Some of Amos's sayings are presented as messenger speeches (“Thus says the Lord”), others as visions (“This is what the Lord showed me”), especially in chs 7–9. Amos, in a legal style of indictment followed by punishment (“therefore . . .”) announced judgments (e.g., 1.3–2.16), delivered funeral orations (e.g., 5.1–2) to lament the fate of Israel, and gave exhortations (e.g., 5.6). He rarely encouraged (but see 9.11–15 and the notes there). In addition to the preceding types of prophetic sayings, the book contains three hymnic fragments (4.13; 5.8–9; 9.5–6) and one narrative (7.10–17).

Interpretation

Against the background of Israelite tradition about “the day of the Lord,” occasions celebrated from the past and eagerly anticipated in the future when the Lord dramatically intervenes in human affairs, Amos announced that such a day was imminent. This time, however, the fortified palaces and temples of Israel would be leveled along with those of Israel's rival nations (1.3–2.3) when God executed the divine version of “justice and righteousness.” Israel's covenant with God (3.2) did not absolve it from this ethical standard, which Amos universalized (9.7–8). Though Amos affirmed the special quality of God's relationship with Israel, he stressed that it entailed a special ethical responsibility (3.1–2). Historically, the agent of this divine punishment would be the Assyrian army (not mentioned in Amos, but see Isa 10.5–11). The frequent references to exile in Amos (e.g., 3.11; 6.7; 7.17) reflect a grim threat: the Assyrian imperial practice of deporting and transplanting conquered peoples.

Amos described himself as “a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees” (7.14). The latter tree is not the same as a North American “sycamore” (Platanus occidentalis), but a type of wild fig tree (Ficus sycomorus). These wild figs were gathered by poor people. The small fruit of this tree was inferior to that from the domesticated fig tree (Ficus carica). By “dressing” or gashing the small fruit of this tree, Amos and his cohorts hastened their ripening. This single, vivid detail about Amos's background in 7.14 speaks volumes about the prophet's ethics and harsh tone. It explains his solidarity with the poor (2.6–7; 5.11; 8.4) who literally “scratched out” a living in rural Judah and Ephraim, desperate for any harvest, however sparse and bitter. As noted, Amos rebuked far more often than he comforted. This arborist with his knife understood that pruning was required for revitalization and new growth. Amos lashed out at the elite's prosperity gained at the expense of the poor, upsetting their “baskets of summer fruit” (8.1–2).

The book of Amos begins and ends with references to an earthquake (1.1 and the images of shaking in 9.1–9). The exact year is unknown (760 has been proposed), but some archaeological evidence of a catastrophe exists. Did this earthquake, so severe that it was recalled centuries later (Zech 14.5), offer cosmic validation of Amos's preaching? One cannot know. Still, even today one can feel the aftershocks of Amos, the first in a brilliant succession of biblical prophets whose words, now preserved in written form, have left their indelible stamp on later thought about God and human history.

Gregory Mobley

¹ The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years^a before the earthquake. ²And he said:

The Lord roars from Zion,

  and utters his voice from Jerusalem;

the pastures of the shepherds wither,

  and the top of Carmel dries up.

³Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Damascus,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they have threshed Gilead

  with threshing sledges of iron.

⁴So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael,

  and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.

⁵I will break the gate bars of Damascus,

  and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,

and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;

  and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir,

                              says the Lord.

Chs 1–2: Places mentioned in the oracles against foreign nations.

⁶Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Gaza,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they carried into exile entire communities,

  to hand them over to Edom.

⁷So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,

  fire that shall devour its strongholds.

⁸I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,

  and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;

I will turn my hand against Ekron,

  and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,

                                  says the Lord God.

⁹Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Tyre,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they delivered entire communities over to Edom,

  and did not remember the covenant of kinship.

¹⁰So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre,

  fire that shall devour its strongholds.

¹¹Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Edom,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because he pursued his brother with the sword

  and cast off all pity;

he maintained his anger perpetually,^b

  and kept his wrath^c forever.

¹²So I will send a fire on Teman,

  and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.

¹³Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of the Ammonites,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead

  in order to enlarge their territory.

¹⁴So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah,

  fire that shall devour its strongholds,

with shouting on the day of battle,

  with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;

¹⁵then their king shall go into exile,

  he and his officials together,

                                  says the Lord.

2

Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Moab,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because he burned to lime

  the bones of the king of Edom.

²So I will send a fire on Moab,

  and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,

and Moab shall die amid uproar,

  amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;

³I will cut off the ruler from its midst,

  and will kill all its officials with him,

                                          says the Lord.

⁴Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Judah,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they have rejected the law of the Lord,

  and have not kept his statutes,

but they have been led astray by the same lies

  after which their ancestors walked.

⁵So I will send a fire on Judah,

  and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

⁶Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Israel,

  and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^a

because they sell the righteous for silver,

  and the needy for a pair of sandals—

⁷they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,

  and push the afflicted out of the way;

father and son go in to the same girl,

  so that my holy name is profaned;

⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar

  on garments taken in pledge;

and in the house of their God they drink

  wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,

  whose height was like the height of cedars,

  and who was as strong as oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above,

  and his roots beneath.

¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,

  and led you forty years in the wilderness,

to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹And I raised up some of your children to be prophets

  and some of your youths to be nazirites.^b

Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?

                              says the Lord.

¹²But you made the nazirites^b drink wine,

  and commanded the prophets,

  saying, “You shall not prophesy.”

¹³So, I will press you down in your place,

  just as a cart presses down

  when it is full of sheaves.^a

¹⁴Flight shall perish from the swift,

  and the strong shall not retain their strength,

  nor shall the mighty save their lives;

¹⁵those who handle the bow shall not stand,

  and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves,

  nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;

¹⁶and those who are stout of heart among the mighty

  shall flee away naked in that day,

                                        says the Lord.

³ Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

²You only have I known

  of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

  for all your iniquities.

³Do two walk together

  unless they have made an appointment?

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest,

  when it has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from its den,

  if it has caught nothing?

⁵Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,

  when there is no trap for it?

Does a snare spring up from the ground,

when it has taken nothing?

⁶Is a trumpet blown in a city,

  and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster befall a city,

  unless the Lord has done it?

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing,

  without revealing his secret

  to his servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared;

  who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken;

  who can but prophesy?

⁹Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod,

  and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,

and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount^b Samaria,

  and see what great tumults are within it,

  and what oppressions are in its midst.”

¹⁰They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,

  those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord God:

  An adversary shall surround the land,

  and strip you of your defense;

  and your strongholds shall be plundered.

¹²Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part^a of a bed.

¹³Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,

  says the Lord God, the God of hosts:

¹⁴On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,

  I will punish the altars of Bethel,

and the horns of the altar shall be cut off

  and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house;

  and the houses of ivory shall perish,

and the great houses^b shall come to an end,

                                  says the Lord.

4

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan

  who are on Mount Samaria,

  who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

  who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”

²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness:

  The time is surely coming upon you,

  when they shall take you away with hooks,

  even the last of you with fishhooks.

³Through breaches in the wall you shall leave,

  each one straight ahead;

  and you shall be flung out into Harmon,^a

                                    says the Lord.

⁴Come to Bethel—and transgress;

  to Gilgal—and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

  your tithes every three days;

⁵bring a thank offering of leavened bread,

  and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

  for so you love to do, O people of Israel!

                                      says the Lord God.

⁶I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

  and lack of bread in all your places,

yet you did not return to me,

                                      says the Lord.

⁷And I also withheld the rain from you

  when there were still three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city,

  and send no rain on another city;

one field would be rained upon,

  and the field on which it did not rain withered;

⁸so two or three towns wandered to one town

  to drink water, and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,

                                                  says the Lord.

⁹I struck you with blight and mildew;

  I laid waste^a your gardens and your vineyards;

  the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;

yet you did not return to me,

                                                  says the Lord.

¹⁰I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

  I killed your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;^b

  and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,

                                                      says the Lord.

¹¹I overthrew some of you,

  as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

  and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;

yet you did not return to me,

                                                        says the Lord.

¹²Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

  because I will do this to you,

  prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

¹³For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

  reveals his thoughts to mortals,

makes the morning darkness,

  and treads on the heights of the earth—

                                                              the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

⁵ Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²Fallen, no more to rise,

  is maiden Israel;

forsaken on her land,

  with no one to raise her up.

³For thus says the Lord God:

The city that marched out a thousand

  shall have a hundred left,

and that which marched out a hundred

  shall have ten left.^c

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live;

  ⁵but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

  or cross over to Beer-sheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

  and Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

  or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,

  and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

⁷Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,

  and bring righteousness to the ground!

⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,

  and turns deep darkness into the morning,

  and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea,

  and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name,

⁹who makes destruction flash out against the strong,

  so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate,

  and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

¹¹Therefore because you trample on the poor

  and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

  but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

  but you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many are your transgressions,

  and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

  and push aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;

  for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil,

  that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

  just as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good,

  and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

  will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

In all the squares there shall be wailing;

  and in all the streets they shall say, “Alas! alas!”

They shall call the farmers to mourning,

  and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing;

¹⁷in all the vineyards there shall be wailing,

  for I will pass through the midst of you,

                                                        says the Lord.

¹⁸Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!

  Why do you want the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, not light;

¹⁹as if someone fled from a lion,

  and was met by a bear;

or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,

  and was bitten by a snake.

²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,

  and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

I will not look upon.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images,^a which you made for yourselves; ²⁷therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

6

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,

  and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

the notables of the first of the nations,

  to whom the house of Israel resorts!

²Cross over to Calneh, and see;

  from there go to Hamath the great;

  then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better^b than these kingdoms?

  Or is your^c territory greater than their^d territory,

³O you that put far away the evil day,

  and bring near a reign of violence?

⁴Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

  and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

  and calves from the stall;

⁵who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

  and like David improvise on instruments of music;

⁶who drink wine from bowls,

  and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

  but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

⁷Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

  and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

⁸The Lord God has sworn by himself

(says the Lord, the God of hosts):

I abhor the pride of Jacob

  and hate his strongholds;

  and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

⁹If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And if a relative, one who burns the dead,^a shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative^b shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹See, the Lord commands,

  and the great house shall be shattered to bits,

  and the little house to pieces.

¹²Do horses run on rocks?

  Does one plow the sea with oxen?^c

But you have turned justice into poison

  and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

¹³you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^d

  who say, “Have we not by our own strength

  taken Karnaim^e for ourselves?”

¹⁴Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,

  O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,

and they shall oppress you from Lebohamath

  to the Wadi Arabah.

⁷ This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king's mowings). ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord God, forgive, I beg you!

  How can Jacob stand?

  He is so small!”

³The Lord relented concerning this;

  “It shall not be,” said the Lord.

⁴This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord God was calling for a shower of fire,^a and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,

“O Lord God, cease, I beg you!

  How can Jacob stand?

  He is so small!”

⁶The Lord relented concerning this;

  “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

⁷This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“See, I am setting a plumb line

  in the midst of my people Israel;

  I will never again pass them by;

⁹the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

  and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

  and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

¹⁰Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

  and Israel must go into exile

  away from his land.’”

¹²And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; ¹³but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am^b no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am^b a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, ¹⁵and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

  You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

  and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord:

  ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,

  and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

  and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

  and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

⁸ This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. ^{a 2}He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”^a Then the Lord said to me,

“The end^b has come upon my people Israel;

  I will never again pass them by.

³The songs of the temple^c shall become wailings in that day,”

                                                  says the Lord God;

“the dead bodies shall be many,

  cast out in every place. Be silent!”

⁴Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

  and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

⁵saying, “When will the new moon be over

  so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

  so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

  and practice deceit with false balances,

⁶buying the poor for silver

  and the needy for a pair of sandals,

  and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

⁷The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

  Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

⁸Shall not the land tremble on this account,

  and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile,

  and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

⁹On that day, says the Lord God,

I will make the sun go down at noon,

  and darken the earth in broad daylight.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning,

  and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,

  and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,

  and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,

  when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

  but of hearing the words of the Lord.

¹²They shall wander from sea to sea,

  and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

  but they shall not find it.

¹³In that day the beautiful young women and the young men

  shall faint for thirst.

¹⁴Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria,

  and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”

  and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—

they shall fall, and never rise again.

9

I saw the Lord standing beside^a the altar, and he said:

Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,

  and shatter them on the heads of all the people;^b

and those who are left I will kill with the sword;

  not one of them shall flee away,

  not one of them shall escape.

²Though they dig into Sheol,

  from there shall my hand take them;

though they climb up to heaven,

  from there I will bring them down.

³Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,

  from there I will search out and take them;

  and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,

  there I will command the sea-serpent, and it shall bite them.

⁴And though they go into captivity in

  front of their enemies,

  there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;

and I will fix my eyes on them

  for harm and not for good.

⁵The Lord, God of hosts,

he who touches the earth and it melts,

  and all who live in it mourn,

and all of it rises like the Nile,

  and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;

⁶who builds his upper chambers in the heavens,

  and founds his vault upon the earth;

who calls for the waters of the sea,

  and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—

the Lord is his name.

⁷Are you not like the Ethiopians^a to me,

  O people of Israel? says the Lord.

Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,

  and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

⁸The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,

  and I will destroy it from the face of the earth

—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,

                                    says the Lord.

⁹For lo, I will command,

  and shake the house of Israel among all the nations

as one shakes with a sieve,

  but no pebble shall fall to the ground.

¹⁰All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,

  who say, “Evil shall not overtake or meet us.”

¹¹On that day I will raise up

  the booth of David that is fallen,

and repair its^b breaches,

  and raise up its^c ruins,

  and rebuild it as in the days of old;

¹²in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom

  and all the nations who are called by my name,

                                      says the Lord who does this.

¹³The time is surely coming, says the Lord,

  when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps,

  and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

  and all the hills shall flow with it.

¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

  and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

  and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

¹⁵I will plant them upon their land,

  and they shall never again be plucked up

  out of the land that I have given them,

                                              says the Lord your God.

1.1: Superscription. Amos means “one supported” (by the Lord); for a longer form of the same name, see “Amasiah” (“Yah[weh] supports”; 2 Chr 17.16). Among the shepherds, the word translated “shepherds” probably denotes a herder or owner of large flocks rather than a hired worker; the same word is translated “sheep breeder” in 2 Kings 3.4, its only other occurrence in the Bible. See also 7.14–15. Tekoa was a town in Judah, ca. 10 mi (16 km) south of Jerusalem, and the home of an anonymous “wise woman” in 2 Sam 14.2. He saw, see Isa 2.1; Mic 1.1; Nah 1.1; visions were common among prophets from Judah (e.g., Isaiah and Ezekiel). For Amos's visions, see chs 7–9. Uzziah reigned over the Southern Kingdom 785–733 bce. Jeroboam II reigned over the Northern Kingdom 788–747, suggesting a maximum span of forty years for Amos's career. On the earthquake, see Introduction.

1.2–2.16: A speech against the nations. A common feature of Israelite prophecy was the indictment of foreign nations, which implied the Lord's universal sovereignty. In general, Amos indicts the neighboring peoples for ethical transgressions on the order of war crimes. The prophet condemns their actions not only against Israel and Judah but also against other neighboring peoples. Thus, the scope of God's concern spans the larger international community. All the nations mentioned were either subject to or allies of the Davidic and Solomonic monarchy, and therefore bound by treaties to which the Lord would have been a witness and for which he was now acting as an enforcer. Near the end of this section, when Amos addresses Judah and Israel, the ethical standard is more exacting. 1.2: This introductory verse occurs in similar form in Joel 3.16 (cf. Jer 25.30). The Lord roars, Amos uses the image of God as lion again in 3.4,8. From Zion, Ps 50.1–2. The sequence from Jerusalem … (to) Carmel traces the trajectory of the book as Amos, a southerner from the vicinity of Jerusalem, addresses the Northern Kingdom, whose northwest boundary was Mt. Carmel (see 9.3n.). 3,6,8, etc.: Thus says the Lord and the conclusion says the Lord are standard formulas identifying prophetic oracles. The idiom for three … and for four indicates “more than enough” (Prov 30.18; Job 33.14).

1.3–5: Against Damascus (cf. Isa 17.1–3; Jer 49.23–27; Zech 9.1–4). Damascus was the capital of Syria (Aram). They have threshed Gilead, Gilead was Israelite territory in northern Transjordan, particularly vulnerable to Syrian aggression (2 Kings 10.32–33); threshing was often used to symbolize martial brutality (Isa 41.15; Mic 4.13); for an example of terroristic “threshing,” see Judg 8.7,16. Hazael and Ben-hadad II were Syrian rulers (2 Kings 13.3). The Valley of Aven probably refers to the Beqa region between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges; Beth-eden, known in Assyrian records as Bit Adini, was a city-state on the Euphrates. The Hebrew names of both places, “Valley of Sin” and “House of Pleasure,” respectively, have symbolic overtones. Kir is the place of Syrian origins (9.7) and exile (2 Kings 16.9); its precise location is unknown.

1.6–8: Against Philistia. Four cities of the Philistine pentapolis (1 Sam 6.17) on the southeast coast of the Mediterranean are condemned for their slave traffic with Edom (2 Chr 21.16–17; Joel 3.4–8; Zeph 2.4–7).

1.9–10: Against Tyre (see Joel 3.4–8). Tyre was a Phoenician seaport north of Israel. Covenant of kinship (lit., “covenant of brothers”), cf. 1 Kings 5.12; 9.13.

1.11–12: Against Edom (Isa 34; Joel 3.19; Ezek 25.12). Edom, located south and east of the Dead Sea, was a perennial rival of neighboring Judah, especially in the exilic and postexilic era (Ps 137.7; Ob). The term his brother, i.e., Judah (Mal 1.2), draws on the ancient tradition of kinship between Jacob and Esau (Esau was “the father of Edom,” Gen 36.43) and also connotes a treaty relationship (see vv. 9–10n.). Teman, a synonym for Edom. Bozrah, modern Buseirah, 40 km (25 mi) south of the Dead Sea.

1.13–15: Against Ammon (Zeph 2.8–11), which is condemned for atrocities against Israelites to its immediate north, in Gilead. Rabbah, the Ammonite capital (modern Amman).

2.1–3: Against Moab Israel's neighbor and rival southeast of the Jordan (Isa 15.1–16.14). Burned to lime, for the practice of desecrating a corpse through disinterment and incineration, see 2 Kings 23.16–20; Isa 33.12. Kerioth, location uncertain; see Jer 48.24,41.

2.4–5: Against Judah. Because of similarities between its language and that of the Deuteronomistic Reform (e.g., 2 Kings 17.15) in the late seventh century bce, many scholars consider this oracle a later addition, but it is consistent with Amos's view that all nations stand accountable before God. Unlike in the previous indictments of foreign nations for crimes against humanity, Judah is held responsible for crimes against God.

2.6–16: Against Israel. Amos's ethical tour finally reaches home, where it surely shocked its audience. Israel can refer both to the Northern Kingdom, as the counterpart of Judah (2.4), and to the entire people that God brought out of Egypt (see 2.10; 3.1). Using the same literary form, Amos shows that Israel stands under divine judgment too, for oppression of the poor and for immorality. 6: They sell the righteous … and the needy into debt slavery. 7: Same girl probably does not refer to ritual prostitutes but to young unmarried women who, like the “needy” and the poor, were being exploited. 8: Garments taken in pledge, see the prohibitions in Ex 22.25; Deut 24.17. The exploitation of the poor is especially odious when commodities gained unjustly, the above garments and wine, were paraded before the deity at the altar of the house of their God. 9: The Amorite … whose height, pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan such as the Amorites (see Ezek 16.3) were often depicted as gigantic (Num 13.32–33; Deut 1.28). 10: Deut 1.19–21. In contrast to the preceding indictments, the prophet invokes God's history with Israel as grounds for impending punishment. 11–12: Nazirites, consecrated individuals who undertook vows, including abstinence from wine; Num 6.2; Judg 13.5. 13–16: The effects of the earthquake (1.1; 9.1). 16: Naked, unarmed and exposed; cf. Isa 20.1–6.

3.1–6.14: Judgment speeches against Israel come in three sections, each with the same opening (3.1; 4.1; 5.1).

3.1–2: A chosen people are held to a higher standard. 2: You only have I known, knowledge here refers to a relationship through covenant. The phrase all the families of the earth recalls traditions about divine promises to Abram (Gen 12.3) and Moses (Ex 19.4–6; Deut 7.6).

3.3–8: A series of rhetorical questions, which permit only a single response, build to an inescapable conclusion in v. 8b: The call to prophecy, unsolicited, cannot be resisted (7.14–15). Furthermore, the self-evident truths of vv. 1–8a render the audience susceptible to a truth in 8b it would naturally resist: Amos speaks on behalf of the Lord. 4: A lion roar, see 1.2. 6: Trumpet, the shofar, the ram's horn. 7: His secret to his servants the prophets, for positive and negative illustrations of this principle, see, respectively, Gen 18.17–19 and 2 Kings 4.27. Because the phrase “his servants the prophets” is Deuteronomistic (see 2 Kings 21.10), and because the verse is in a different form, some scholars consider it a later addition (see 2.3–4n.). 8: Who can but prophesy? Just as in chs 1–2, seven indictments against other peoples (1.3–2.5) rhetorically set a trap, sprung in the eighth against Israel itself, in this chapter seven questions (3.3–6) build to a crescendo; cf. 7.14–15 for Amos's reluctance to accept the call to prophecy.

3.9–15: Neighboring nations are invited to witness the Lord's complaint against the elite of Israelite society, who dwelt in strongholds, massive fortified palaces. 9: Ashdod, a Philistine city on the Mediterranean coast; see 1.6–8. Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom. 11: God addresses Samaria directly and promises the coming of an adversary, though whether the figure is a divine or human agent of God's judgment is difficult to say (cf. Isa 10.5; Jer 25.8; Lam 2.5). 12: As Amos, a pastoralist himself (7.14) knew, a shepherd was absolved of blame for loss of livestock if there were even small remains, legs, or a piece of an ear, of a predator's attack. With sarcasm, Amos suggests that after the divine punishment, announced by the roar of a lion (1.2; 3.8), only scraps would remain from the palaces of Samaria. Thus, Israel's remains do not signify the survival of a righteous remnant, but rather they justify God's judgment, just as the remains of an animal's carcass vindicate the shepherd (Ex 22.13). 13: House of Jacob, the Northern Kingdom of Israel; cf. 9.8. 14: Bethel was near the southern border of the Northern Kingdom, ca. 18 km (11 mi) north of Jerusalem. For Bethel as a shrine of the Northern Kingdom, see 1 Kings 12.25–30; for Amos and Bethel, see 4.4; 5.5–6; 7.10–13. Grasping the horns of the altar, the projections at the corners of an altar, brought asylum (Ex 21.14; 1 Kings 2.28–34). 15: The Lord will raze the tokens of conspicuous Israelite consumption: the winter house, the summer house, and the houses decorated with carved ivory inlay (see 6.4), such as the royal palace in Samaria built by Ahab (1 Kings 22.39) and whose winter house is mentioned in 1 Kings 21.1.

4.1–3: Israel's luxurious excesses. Wealthy and greedy women of Samaria would be punished along with their husbands. 1: Bashan, a fertile region in the northern Transjordan renowned for its cattle (Ps 22.12). Jeremiah (31.18) and Hosea (4.16) also compared Israel—its menfolk too—to cows. 2: Hooks … fishhooks, the terms are obscure but perhaps refer to the practice of leading away prisoners with hooks through their noses, as depicted in ancient Near Eastern art (cf. Isa 37.29). 3: Straight ahead, with the city walls in ruins, the captives will be easily taken away.

4.4–5: Israel's piety is satirized. 4: Bethel, see 3.14n. Gilgal, a venerable Israelite shrine near Jericho (e.g., Josh 4.20; 10.43; 1 Sam 7.16), condemned by Amos (5.5) and his contemporary Hosea (Hos 4.15; 9.15; 12.11). The ritual practices listed here are prescribed elsewhere; for the morning sacrifice, see Ex 29.29; tithes, see Lev 27.30–32; Deut 14.28–29; thank offering of leavened bread, see Lev 7.13; freewill offerings, see Num 15.3. Note the association of tithes with Bethel in Gen 28.22.

4.6–13: Israel has ignored the divine warnings issued through plagues. These plagues typify the curses a treaty partner brought on itself through disobedience. Israel's covenantal documents contained such curses (Lev 26.14–39; Deut 28.15–68). 6: Cleanness of teeth (i.e., famine). 10: A pestilence after the manner of Egypt, Ex 9.3–7,15. The stench of unburied corpses, as in Isa 34.3. 11: The verb overthrew here could refer to an earthquake, as it seems to in Gen 19.25,29, where the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is described. 13: The first of three doxologies interspersed throughout Amos (5.8–9; 9.5–6). These hymnlike sections emphasize that the God Israel encounters in judgment is the creator.

5.1–3: Lament for Israel. Among the forms of prophetic speech was the lament; hearing one's own funeral speech delivered by a prophet must have had a sobering effect (cf. Jer 9.17–22).

5.4–7: A plea for repentance. Though the lament form was meant to convey a sense of inevitable judgment, there is yet time to seek the Lord and live (v. 6), an exhortation to turn to God or abide by God's precepts (Ps 24.6; Prov 28.5; Isa 55.6). The prophet enjoins Israel to seek the Lord, not the sanctuaries of the Lord. 5: For Bethel and Gilgal, see 3.14n.; 4.4n. Beer-sheba, though in the Negeb to the far south, was a shrine associated with Israel's ancestors (Gen 21.25–31; 26.23; 46.1–4) and would have attracted pilgrims from the north. 6: House of Joseph, (i.e., the Northern Kingdom). Its two main parts were Ephraim and Manasseh, named for the sons of Joseph (Gen 41.50–52; 48). 7: The dried leaves of wormwood were aromatic and bitter; here, injustice leads to bitterness (see 6.12).

5.8–9: The second doxology (see 4.13n.). 8: Pleiades and Orion also occur together in Job 9.9; 38.31. Though astral bodies could inspire illicit worship (e.g., 2 Kings 23.5), to the faithful they testified to God's power (e.g., Ps 8.3).

5.10–17: Amos condemns a corrupt legal system. 10–13: At the very site of legal proceedings, the city gate, the truth is rejected, the poor are plundered, and witnesses are bribed. 11: A futility curse, in which the connections between actions and their expected effects are broken; cf. Deut 28.30–31,38–46; Mic 6.14–15; Zeph 1.13. 12: Cf. 2.6–7. 14–15: Another plea for repentance; see vv. 4–7; Joseph, see 5.6n. 16–17: Staying with the images of village life and returning to the motif of lament (5.1–3), Amos depicts the divine punishment for injustice. 16: Skilled in lamentation, professional mourners; see Jer 9.17–21; Ezek 32.16; Eccl 12.5; 2 Chr 35.25.

5.18–6.14: A series of “woe” sayings (5.18–25; 6.1–3; 6.4–14) complete the section of judgment speeches.

5.18–20: The day of the Lord in which Israelites expected to be vindicated against their enemies, will be, as depicted already in 1.1–2.16, a day when Israel too receives its judgment. See also Isa 13.6,9; Jer 46.10; Joel 2.1–2; Mal 4.5.

5.21–27: The Lord delights not in abundance of festivals and sacrifices but in justice and righteousness. See also Isa 1.10–17; Mic 6.6–8; Ps 50. 21–23: The language is harsh. Festivals refers to the three pilgrimage feasts (Ex 23.14–17; 34.18,22–23; Deut 16.16), as does solemn assemblies (Lev 23.36; Deut 16.8). The sacrifices in v. 22 were prescribed; see, e.g., Lev 7.8–14. Songs is often used of hymns (see 8.3), such as the psalms (e.g., see title of Ps 120). For a similar view, see Isa 1.11–17. 24: Justice and righteousness, care for the poor. An ever-flowing stream is a riverbed that never fails, as opposed to a wadi, common in Israel's landscape, which had runoff water only in the rainy season. 25: As in Jeremiah (2.2–3) and Hosea (2.14–20; 9.10), the period in the wilderness after the Exodus is recalled as an ideal. Like Jer 7.21–23, the rhetorical question presumes that sacrifice was not a component of Israel's religious system immediately after the Exodus. This is inconsistent with other biblical traditions (contrast Ex 20–Num 10). 26: Sakkuth and Kaiwan (Saturn) designate known Assyrian deities. Sakkuth may be the same as the “Succoth” whose cult the Babylonians established in Samaria after its fall (2 Kings 17.30). 27: Damascus, 1.3–5n.

6.1–7: An indictment of conspicuous consumption. 1: Amos targets the elite of the capitals of both Judah (Zion, i.e., Jerusalem) and Israel (Mount Samaria). 2: Cf. Isa 10.9–11. Calneh and Hamath were prosperous cities of Syria, conquered by the Assyrians in 738 bce; the allusion to Gath, the only Philistine city unmentioned in 1.6–8, could refer to its defeat at the hands of Syria (2 Kings 12.18) or Judah (2 Chr 26.6), or its conquest by the Assyrians in 711. 4: Beds of ivory, see 3.15n. Hundreds of ivory fragments have been excavated from the site of Samaria. 5: David, 1 Sam 16.23; 1 Chr 23.5; Neh 12.36. 6–7: Joseph, see 5.6n. The elite of Samaria, accustomed to the choicest products, will be the first chosen for deportation by the Assyrians. 7: The revelry (Heb “marzeah”) was a social and funerary ritual banquet of Canaanite origin; cf. Jer 16.5.

6.8–14: Judgment on Israel. Jacob, here referring to the Northern Kingdom. The house of Israel, both as a sociopolitical body and as representative of its palatial strongholds, is doomed. 9–10: Burns the dead probably refers to practices to stop the spread of infection. In this extremity, the few survivors dare not mention the name of the Lord, out of fear of inviting their own destruction from a deity still intent on destruction. 12: Israel's legal and moral machinations are a perversion bordering on the absurd. Wormwood, see 5.7n. 13: Lo-debar and Karnaim are two cities east of the Jordan recovered for Israel by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14.25). The verse puns on the names of the cities, which mean “No-thing” and “Horns (i.e., strength),” respectively. 14: An unnamed nation will be the instrument of God's judgment. From Lebo-hamath to the Wadi Arabah, the farthest limits of Israelite territory (see 2 Kings 14.25), from the Orontes Valley in Lebanon to the north to the Rift Valley in the southeast.

7.1–9.15: The visions of Amos. The final section of the book consists of accounts and interpretations of five visions which become increasingly severe (7.1–3,4–6,7–9; 8.1–3; 9.1–6), a biographical account about the prophet (7.10–17), and prophetic oracles (8.4–14; 9.5–15).

7.1–9: The first three of five visions and Amos's intercession. Amos acts as an intercessor on behalf of Israel (see Gen 18.17; Ex 32.7–14). Yet prophetic intercession, while effective in the short term, will ultimately not deter God from punishing sinful Israel.

7.1–3: Judgment by locusts (cf. Joel 1.2–7). 1: A locust plague at the time of the latter growth endangered the spring planting, just sprouting, after the harvest of the winter crops. 2: The prophet appeals to God's sense of proportion: Israel (Jacob) is so small and, by implication, God is so big (cf. Job 7.20). 3: The Lord relented, God's mind changed concerning the punishment, although forgiveness is not offered, as Amos requested (see also Ex 32.14; Joel 2.13; Jon 4.2).

7.4–6: Judgment by fire. 4: The great deep, the cosmic waters under the earth and over the heavens (see Gen 1.2).

7.7–9: Israel falls short. The plumb line (2 Kings 21.13–15), a device for determining the true vertical line of a structure, reveals that Israel's religious and political institutions do not measure up and will be destroyed; here the prophet offers no intercessory protest or plea, though he does maintain a dialogue with God. High places were open-air sanctuaries. Though acceptable in earlier eras, Amos and Hosea (10.8) condemned them as places of illicit worship. Isaac, a rare designation for the Northern Kingdom (see v. 16). House of Jeroboam, the royal dynasty of Jeroboam II (788–747 bce).

7.10–17: Amos and Amaziah. This episode, a narrative illustration of 2.12 in the form of a dramatic encounter between the royal priest and the prophet, the classic outsider, is here perhaps because the reference to King Jeroboam (v. 10) picks up the phrase “house of Jeroboam” (v. 9). Amaziah was the official priest of the royal shrine at Bethel (see 3.14n.). 10: Whether or not the charge against Amos is accurate, prophets such as Elisha did engage in political upheavals (2 Kings 9.1–10). 11: For thus Amos has said, Amaziah does not attribute the prophet's words to God. The first utterance Amaziah cites (Jeroboam shall die …) is the rough but not exact equivalent of 7.9; the second phrase (Israel must go …) is similar to 4.2–3; 5.5,26–27; 6.7; 9.4. 12: Earn your bread, lit., “eat bread.” 14: Amos asserts that he is neither a professional prophet (1 Sam 9.6–10; Mic 3.5–8,11) nor a member of a prophetic guild (2 Kings 2.3; 1 Sam 10.5; 1 Kings 22.6), but a herdsman of cattle (cf. 1.1n.) and seasonally a dresser of sycamore trees (see Introduction). 15: Cf. 2 Sam 7.8. 17: A dreadful string of curses: May your wife … become a prostitute; may others acquire title to your land (i.e., parcel it out with a measuring line). Israel shall surely go, Amos closes his response to Amaziah by repeating the latter's words from v. 11.

8.1–9.15: Further visions and oracles. The final two chapters of Amos have a similar outline: Both begin with visions (8.1–3; 9.1–6), followed by oracles with many literary connections (cf. 8.8 with 9.5; 8.9 with 9.11; 8.11 with 9.13).

8.1–3: Fourth vision. A basket of ripe summer fruit symbolizes the immediacy of Israel's end. Note the pun in Hebrew between summer fruit, “qayits,” and end, “qets.” 2: I will never again pass them by, God will no longer mitigate Israel's punishment, see 7.8. Contrast 5.17, where God's presence brings destruction. 3: Songs of the temple, see 5.21–23n. Wailings, see 5.16. Be silent, after the conclusion of the fourth and before the fifth and final vision (9.1–4) the prophet who had interceded and maintained dialogue with God through the previous visions is rendered speechless.

8.4–14: Judgment speeches against Israel; cf. 3.1–6.14. 4–6: Rapacious and fraudulent business practices victimize the poor; cf. 2.6–7. 5: The merchants are impatient for the holy days to pass so they can resume their fraudulent business (Lev 19.35–36; Deut 25.13–16). The new moon, see Num 29.6. Ephah small, sell less than the apparent volume; an ephah was ca. .66 bu (23 l). Shekel great, overcharge; a shekel weighed ca. .4 oz (11.5 gr). False balances, scales rigged in the merchant's favor. 6: Buying the poor probably refers to outright slavery, as opposed to selling the righteous (2.6) into debt slavery. Sweepings of the wheat, they sell the chaff as wheat. 7: Pride of Jacob, may be an epithet for God (cf. 1 Sam 15.29) or for Israel (see Ps 47.4). Here the term is ironic, for it is the sinful pride of Israel that prompts God's reproach (see 6.8; Jer 13.9; Hos 7.10). That God does not forget is often a comfort (see Deut 4.31; Ps 9.12; Isa 49.15), but here it brings judgment. 8: Tremble, perhaps another reference to an earthquake (see Introduction). Like the Nile … tossed about and sink, the annual inundation of the Nile (9.5; Jer 46.7–8). 9–10: A solar eclipse portends divine punishment and elicits mourning rituals. Sackcloth and baldness were customary expressions of mourning associated with national disaster (e.g., Isa 22.12). An only son, Jer 6.26; Zech 12.10. 11–12: No longer will God's judgment come as a famine or drought (contrast 4.6), but rather as an absence of prophecy, thus extinguishing the intercessory role of prophets in times of turmoil. 14: Ashimah (or “guilt”) of Samaria could be a Syrian deity (2 Kings 17.30) or a disparaging reference (“the guilt”) to the practice of treating the cosmic Lord merely as the patron of a local shrine, whether in the center of Israel (Samaria), the farthest north (Dan), or the farthest south (Beer-sheba).

9.1–6: Fifth vision. For other appearances of the Lord at shrines, see 1 Sam 3.1–18; Isa 6.1–13. 1: Probably the altar at Bethel (3.14; 7.10) is intended. Capital, the top of a pillar. Threshold, the foundational slab of the doorposts. The entire structure, from ceiling to foundation, will shake; see Isa 6.4. 2: Sheol, the place of the dead (Job 10.19–22; Isa 14.11,15), which, Amos asserts, is within God's purview (Ps 139.7–12), though many feared it was not (e.g., Ps 6.6; 88.3–5). 3: Mount Carmel, which juts into the Mediterranean at the northwestern border of Israel, reaches a summit of ca. 550 m (1,800 ft) above sea level and also boasts caves and forests for those who wish to hide. Sea-serpent, sea monsters, personifications of chaos, are at times cast as opponents of God (Ps 72.13); at other times, as here, as God's servants (Ps 104.25–26; Job 41). 5–6: The third hymnlike passage (4.13; 5.8–9). 5: See 8.8n. 6: Upper chambers, Ps 104.3. The vault is another name for the celestial barrier thought to separate the earth from the cosmic waters (Gen 1.6–8; Prov 8.27).

9.7–10: Israel has no claim to special privilege. Amos refutes the idea that Israel's relationship with God implies its superiority. This oracle suggests, positively, that God has enacted other exoduses at other times and places and, negatively, that Israel stands in judgment alongside the nations; see 3.2. 7: Like the Ethiopians, even distant Nubia is within God's purview. Philistines from Caphtor (probably Crete) (Jer 47.4). Kir, see 1.5n. 8: Though the political entity of the Northern Kingdom will be destroyed, the people of Israel, here the House of Jacob, will not. 9: Sieve, used to separate grain from stones picked up on the threshing room floor.

9.11–15: An oracle of restoration. Prophetic collections often end on a similar, hopeful note; many, as above, refer to that day (Hos 14.1–7; Joel 3.18–21; Mic 7.11–20; Zeph 3.14–20; Hag 2.20; Zech 14.6,20; Mal 14.1–5). 11: Booth of David, elsewhere in Amos, the fate of the Davidic dynasty, depicted here as in ruins, had not been a concern. This verse, at least, sounds like it stems from a later time, after the dynasty had fallen. The phrase “booth of David” suggests a more fragile structure than the more frequent “house of David” (cf. 2 Sam 7.11; Isa 1.8). 12: Edom was a traditional rival of Judah, not Israel, so this is further evidence that part or all of this final oracle was added after the fall of Samaria in 722 bce, at a time when the book was reinterpreted for Judahites. 13: See Joel 3.18–21. Shall overtake, see Lev 26.5.

^a Or during two years

^a Heb cause it to return

^a Heb cause it to return

^b Syr Vg: Heb and his anger tore perpetually

^c Gk Syr Vg: Heb and his wrath kept

^a Heb cause it to return

^b That is, those separated or those consecrated

^a Meaning of Heb uncertain

^b Gk Syr: Heb the mountains of

^a Meaning of Heb uncertain

^b Or many houses

^a Cn: Heb the multitude of

^b Heb with the captivity of your horses

^c Heb adds to the house of Israel

^a Heb your images, your star-god

^b Or Are they better

^c Heb their

^d Heb your

^a Or who makes a burning for him

^b Heb he

^c Or Does one plow them with oxen

^d Or in a thing of nothingness

^e Or horns

^a Or for a judgment by fire

^b Or was

^a Heb qayits

^b Heb qets

^c Or palace

^a Or on

^b Heb all of them

^a Or Nubians; Heb Cushites

^b Gk: Heb their

^c Gk: Heb his