And will1 sift the house of Israel among all nations,
As grain is sifted in a sieve;
aYet not the smallest1 grain shall fall to the ground.
aWho say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
Israel Will Be Restored
The1 tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And1 repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
bThe mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
bThey shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
Amos
AMOS (meaning in Hebrew "a burden") was (Amos 1:1) a shepherd of Tekoa, a small town of Judah, six miles southeast from Beth-lehem, and twelve from Jerusalem, on the borders of the great desert (II Chronicles 20:20; compare II Chronicles 11:6). The region being sandy was more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. Amos therefore owned and tended flocks, and collected sycamore figs; not that the former was a menial office, kings themselves, as Mesha of Moab (II Kings 3:4), exercising it. Amos, however (from Amos 7:14-15), seems to have been of humble rank.
Though belonging to Judah, he was commissioned by God to exercise his prophetical function in Israel; as the latter kingdom abounded in impostors, and the prophets of God generally fled to Judah through fear of the kings of Israel, a true prophet from Judah was the more needed in it. His name is not to be confounded with that of Isaiah's father, Amoz.
The time of his prophesying was in the reigns of Uzziah king of Judea, and Jeroboam II, son of Joash, king of Israel (Amos 1:1), that is, in part of the time in which the two kings were contemporary; probably in Jeroboam's latter years, after that monarch had recovered from Syria "the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain" (II Kings 14:25-27); for Amos foretells that these same coasts, "from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness," should be the scene of Israel's being afflicted (Amos 6:14); also his references to the state of luxurious security then existing (Amos 6:1, Amos 6:4, Amos 6:13), and to the speedy termination of it by the Assyrian foe (Amos 1:5; Amos 3:12, Amos 3:15; Amos 5:27; Amos 8:2), point to the latter part of Jeroboam's reign, which terminated in 784 BC, the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah's reign, which continued down to 759 BC He was contemporary with Hosea, only that the latter continued to prophesy in reigns subsequent to Uzziah (Hosea 1:1); whereas Amos ceased to prophesy in the reign of that monarch. The scene of his ministry was Beth-el, where the idol calves were set up (Amos 7:10-13). There his prophecies roused Amaziah, the idol priest, to accuse him of conspiracy and to try to drive him back to Judah.
The first six chapters are without figure; the last three symbolical, but with the explanation subjoined. He first denounces the neighboring peoples, then the Jews, then Israel (from the third chapter to the end), closing with the promise or restoration under Messiah (Amos 9:11-15). His style is thought by JEROME to betray his humble origin; but though not sublime, it is regular, perspicuous, and energetic; his images are taken from the scenes in nature with which he was familiar; his rhythms are flowing, his parallelisms exact, and his descriptions minute and graphic. Some peculiar expressions occur: "cleanness of teeth," that is, want of bread (Amos 4:6); "the excellency of Jacob" (Amos 6:8; Amos 8:7); "the high places of Isaac" (Amos 7:9); "the house of Isaac" (Amos 7:16); "he that createth the wind" (Amos 4:13).
HENGSTENBERG draws an able argument for the genuineness of the Mosaic records from the evidence in Amos, that the existing institutions in Israel as well as Judah (excepting the calves of Jeroboam), were framed according to the Pentateuch rules.
Two quotations from Amos occur in the New Testament (compare Acts 7:42-43, with Amos 5:25-26; and Acts 15:16-17, with Amos 9:11).
PHILO, JOSEPHUS, MELITO'S catalogue, JEROME, JUSTIN MARTYR (Dialogue with Trypho, 22, quoting the fifth and six chapters of Amos as "one of the twelve minor prophets"), and the sixtieth canon of the Laodicean council support the canonicity of the book of Amos.
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