Amos (I)

I. AMOS, the fourth of the small Prophets, was, as is said, of the little Town of Tekoah, in the Tribe of Judah, four leagues Southward from Jerusalem. There is no good proof however that he was a native of this place, but only that he retired thither, when he was driven from Bethel, which was in the kingdom of the ten Tribes. It is very probable that he was born within the territories of Israel, and that his Mission was directed principally to this Kingdom.

As he was prophesying in Bethel, where the golden Calves were, in the reign of Jeroboam the second, about the year of the World 3215. before the birth of J. C. 785. before the vulgar Æra 789. Amaziah the High-Priest of Bethel accused Amos vii. 10,11,&c.him before King Jeroboam, 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. Amaziah said therefore unto Amos, O thou Seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the King’s Chapel, and it is the King’s Court.

Amos answered Amaziah, I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet’s Son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of Sycamore fruit¹. And 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. After this the Prophet retired into the Kingdom of Judah, and dwelt in the town of Tekoah, where he continued to prophesy. He complains in many places of the violence offered him by endeavouring to oblige him to silence; and bitterly exclaims against the disorders of Israel.

He began to prophesy the second year before the earthquake, which happened in the reign of King Uzziah, and which Josephus², with most of the antient and modern Commentators, refers to this Prince’s usurpation of the Priest’s office,³ when he attempted to offer incense to the Lord. The first of his Prophecies, in order of time, are those of the VII Chapter. The others he pronounced in the Town of Tekoah, whither he retired. His first two Chapters are against Damascus, the Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the Kingdom of Judah, and that of the ten Tribes. The evils which he threatens them with refer to the times of Salmanezer, Tiglath-pileser*, Sennacherib* and Nebuchadnezzar, who did so much mischief to these provinces, and at last led the Israelites into captivity.

He foretold the misfortunes which the Kingdom of Israel should fall into after the death of Jeroboam the second, who was then living. He foretold the death of King Zechariah, the invasion of the lands belonging to Israel by Phul and Tiglath-pileser, Kings of Assyria. He speaks of the Captivity of the ten Tribes, and of their return into their own Country. He makes sharp invectives against the sins of Israel, against their effeminacy and avarice, their harshness to the poor, the splendor of their buildings, and the delicacy of their tables. He reproves the people of Israel for going to Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, and Beersheba, which were the most famous Pilgrimages of the Country, and for swearing by the Gods of these places.

The time and manner of his death are not known. Some old Authors relate⁴, that Amaziah Priest of Bethel, whom we have spoken of, provoked by the discourses of the Prophet, had his teeth broke, in order to silence him. Others⁵ say, that Hosea, or Uzziah the Son of Amaziah, struck him with a stake upon the temples, and knocked him down, and almost killed him; that in this condition he was carried to Tekoah, where he died, and was buried with his Fathers. This is the account we have from these Authors. On the contrary, it is our opinion, that he prophesied a long time at Tekoah, after the adventure which he had with Amaziah. And the Prophet taking no notice of the ill treatment which he is said to have received from Uzziah, his silence is an argument that he suffered nothing from him.

S. Jerom observes, that there is nothing great and sublime in the style of Amos.⁶He 2 Cor. xi. 6.applies these words of St. Paul to him, rude in speech, tho’ not in knowledge. He Amos i. 2,says farther, that as every one chuses to speak of his own art, Amos generally makes use of comparisons taken from the country life, wherein he had been brought up. S. Austin⁷ shews, that there was a certain kind of eloquence in the Sacred Writers, directed by the Spirit of Wisdom, and so proportioned to the nature of the things they treated of, that even they who accuse them of rusticity and unpoliteness in their way of writing, could not chuse a style more suitable, were they to have spoken on the same subject, to the same persons, and in the same circumstances.

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