AMOS, PROPHECY OF (a'mos, proTe-sy 6v). When Amos received his commission, the king dom of Israel, which had been 'cut short' by Hazael (2 Kings x :32) towards the close of Jehu's reign, was restored to its ancient limits and splendor by Jeroboam the Second (2 Kings xiv :25). But the restoration of national pros perity was followed by the prevalence of luxury, licentiousness, and oppression, to an extent that again provoked the divine displeasure, and Amos was called from the sheep-folds to be the har binger of the coming judgments. Not that his commission was limited entirely to Israel. The thunder-storm rolls over all the surrounding kingdoms, touches Judah in its progress, and at length settles upon Israel. Chap. i; form a solemn prelude to the main subject; nation after nation is summoned to judgment, in each instance with the striking idiomatical expression (similar to that in Proverbs xxx 18, 21). 'For three transgressions—and for four—I will not turn away the punishment thereof.' Israel is then addressed in the same style, and in chap. iii (after a brief rebuke of the twelve tribes collectively) its degenerate state is strikingly ii:t ; iv:It ; v:26; to agricultural or pastoral em ployments and occurrences, i:3; 6:13; iii:5, 12; IV:2, 9; v:19; vti:t ; ix:g, 13, 15; and to national institutions and customs, ii :8; iii :15; iv:4; v :21 ; Vi :4-6, to; '611:5, to, Some peculiar expressions occur; such as 'cleanness of teeth,' a parallelism to 'want of bread,' vi :6. 'God of Hosts' is found only in Amos and the Psalms. 'The high places of vii:9; the house of Isaac,' vii:16. 'He that createth the wind,' iv :t3.
(2) The Canonicity of the Book. The
canonicity of the book of Amos is amply sup ported both by Jewish and Christian authorities. Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud include it among the minor prophets. It is also in the cata logues of Melito, Jerome, and the sixtieth canon of the Council of Laodicea. Justin Martyr, in his Dialcgue with Trypho (Sec. 22), quotes a portrayed, and the denunciations of divine jus tice are intermingled, like repeated thunderclaps, to the end of chap. vi. The seventh and eighth chapters contain various symbolical visions, with a brief historical episode (vii -10-171, In the ninth chapter the majesty of Jehovah and the terrors of his justice are set forth with a sub limity of diction which rivals and partly copies that of the royal Psalmist (Crimp. verses 2, 3. with Ps. cix, and ver. 6 with Ps. cis.). Towards the close the scene brightebs, and from the eleventh verse to the end the promises of the divine mercy and returning favor to the chosen race are ex hibited in imagery of great beauty taken from rural life.
(1) Various Allusions. The allusions in the writings of this prophet arc numerous and varied; they refer to natural objects, as in iii :4. 8: iv :7.(); v:8; vi:12 ; ix:3; to historical events, i:o, It, 13; considerable part of the fifth and sixth chapters, %%hid, he introduces by sayuw, '1 lear how he speaks concerning these by Amos. one of the twelve' There arc twu qu stations front it in the New Testament : the first I v:25, 261 hy the proto trartyr Stephen 1 Acts vii :42), the second (ix :it) by the apostle James (Acts xv :16).