Amos #67

Amos was a prophet of the eighth century BC who spoke against the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, while Uzziah was king in Judah (Amos 1:1). He is one of the earliest of the prophets whose words were collected in a book, and his message is best known for its sharp focus on social justice and the empty worship that accompanies oppression. The book dates his prophecy to two years before an earthquake, an event that later tradition also remembered (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5).

Biblical Significance

Amos was not a professional prophet. Though he came from Tekoa in Judah, he was sent to the north, and he told the priest Amaziah plainly that he was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs whom the Lord took from following the flock (Amos 7:14-15). He begins with a series of oracles against neighboring nations for their brutality, and then turns the same standard on Judah and finally on Israel itself (Amos 1:3 through 2:16).

His accusations are specific. He condemns those who sell the needy for a pair of sandals, trample the poor, and use dishonest scales in business, all while the wealthy live in ease on ivory couches in Samaria (Amos 2:6-8; 6:4-6; 8:4-6). He also insists that religious observance cannot cover for injustice. In God’s voice, he says that the feasts, assemblies, and songs are hated, and calls instead for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:21-24).

The prophet’s visions of a plumb line, locusts, fire, and a basket of summer fruit each declare that Israel’s end is near (Amos 7:1 through 8:3). At Bethel, the royal sanctuary, Amaziah told him to go home and stop prophesying there, and Amos answered with a pronouncement against Amaziah and his household (Amos 7:10-17). Israel fell to Assyria about a generation later.

Legacy

Though much of Amos is judgment, the book closes with a promise that God will restore the fallen booth of David and bring back the exiles to rebuild ruined cities (Amos 9:11-15). James quotes this passage at the Council of Jerusalem to support the welcoming of Gentiles into the church (Acts 15:15-17). The phrase about justice rolling down like waters has been widely used in later movements for social reform, most famously in twentieth-century civil rights speeches. Amos is a lasting voice in the biblical argument that true worship and just dealings with others cannot be separated.