II. AMAZIAH, Priest to the golden Calves that were at Bethel. The Prophet Amos having said upon a certain day, that the High Places consecrated to Idols should be destroyed; and that however holy they might then be thought by Israel, they would be overthrown, and the House of Jeroboam extirpated by the sword; Amaziah Priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam King of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, Go, thou Seer, flee thee away into the land of Judah; and there eat bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy not any more at Bethel; for it is the King’s Chapel, and it is the King’s Court1.
Amos answered Amaziah, I am no Prophet, nor the Son of a Prophet; but I am an herdman, and a gatherer of Sycamore -fruit2. The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my People Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel; and drop not thy word against the House of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Thy wife shall be an harlot in the City, and thy Sons and thy Daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land; and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.
S. Cyril of Alexandria says3 that Amaziah, provoked at the Prophet’s discourse, had his teeth broke in his head, in order to oblige him to be silent. Others say, that the same Amaziah procured several punishments to be inflicted on him; and that his Son Uzziah gave him a blow upon the temples with a stake, and knocked him down. The Prophet was carried back half dead to Tekoah, the place of his birth, where he died, and was buried with his fathers4. But these traditions are of no great certainty. It appears by the writings of this Prophet, that he retired into the lands belonging to Judah, and that he prophesied there for some time after what is related of Amaziah. Amos lived under Jeroboam the second, about the year of the World 3215. before J.C. 785. before the vulgar Æra 789.
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Footnotes
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Amos prophesied under Jeroboam II. and then the Kings of Israel kept their Court at Samaria. But they had in all probability a palace at Bethel. ↩
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Amos vii. 14. Vellicans Sycomoros. בלם שקמיםTheodot. Χαρακᾶν συκαμίνους. Plin. l. 13. c.7. Sycomorus scalpendo tantum ferreis unguibus, aliter non maturescit: id cum factum est, quarto die demetitur. ↩
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Cyrill. Præfat. exposition. in Amos. ↩
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Epiphan. de vita & morte Prophet. cap. 12. Isidor. de vita & morte SS c. 43. Doroth. in Synops. &c. IV. AMINADAB, or ABINADAB, the Son of t Antiq. l. 18. c. 3. ↩