Jeroboam's death. Amos speaks of the conquests of this warlike king as completed (vi, 13 ; comp. 2 Kings xiv, 25) ; on the other hand the Assyrians, who toward the end of his reign were approaching Palestine (Hos. x, G ; xi, 5), do not seem as yet to have caused any alarm in the country. Amos predicts, indeed, that Israel and other neighboring nations will be punished by certain wild conquerors from the north (i, 5 ; v, 27 ; vi, 14), but does not name them, as if they were still unknown or unheeded. (See Niemeyer, Charakt. d. Bibel, v, 302 sq.) Book of Amos. — When Amos received his commis- sion (B.C. 783), the kingdom of Israel, which had been " cut short" by Hazael (2 Kings x, 33) toward the close of Jehu's reign, was restored to its ancient limits and splendor by Jeroboam II (2 Kings xiv, 25). But the restoration of national prosperity was followed by the prevalence of luxury, licentiousness, and oppression, to an extent that again provoked the divine displeas- ure ; and Amos was called from the sheepfolds to be the harbinger of the coming judgments. The poor were oppressed (viii, 4), the ordinances of religion thought burdensome (viii, 5), and idleness, luxury, and extravagance were general (iii, 15). The source of these evils was idolatry, of course that of the gold- en calves, not of B.ial, since Jehu's dynasty occupied the throne, though it seems probable from 2 Kings xiii, 6, which passage must refer to Jeroboam's reign [see Benhadad III], that the rites even of Astarte were tolerated in Samaria, though not encouraged. Calf-worship was specially practised at Bethel, where was a principal temple and summer palace for the king (vii, 13; comp. iii, 15), also at Gilgal, Dan, and Beersheba in Judah (iv, 4 ; v, 5 ; viii, 14), and was offensively united with the true worship of the Lord (v, 14, 21-23; comp. 2 Kings xvii, 33). Amos went to rebuke this at Bethel itself, but was compelled to return to Judah by the high-priest Amaziah, who pro- cured from Jeroboam an order for his expulsion from the northern kingdom. Not that his commission was limited entirely to Israel. The thunder-storm (as Biiekert poetically expresses it) rolls over all the sur- rounding kingdoms, touches Judah in its progress, and at length settles upon Israel. Chapters i ; ii, 1-5, form a solemn prelude to the main subject ; nation after na- tion is summoned to judgment, in each instance with the striking idiomatical expression (similar to that in Prov. xxx, 15, 18, 21), " For three transgressions — and for four — I will not turn away the punishment there- of." 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 portray- ed, and the denunciations of divine justice are inter- mingled, like repeated thunder-claps, to the end of chap. vi. The seventh and eighth chapters contain various symbolical visions, with a brief historical epi- sode (vii, 10-17). In the ninth chapter the majesty of Jehovah and the terrors of his justice are set forth with a sublimity of diction which rivals and partly copies that of the royal Psalmist (comp. ver. 2, 3, with Psa. cix, and ver. G with Psa. civ). Toward the close the scene brightens ; and from the eleventh verse to the end the promises of the divine mercy and returning favor to the chosen race are exhibited in imagery of great beauty taken from rural life. The allusions in the writings of this prophet are numerous and varied ; they refer to natural objects, as in iii, 4, 8 ; iv, 7, 9 ; v, 8; vi, 12; ix, 3: to historical events, i, 9, 11, 13; ii, 1; iv, 11; v, 2G : to agricultural or pastoral employ- ments and occurrences, i, 3 ; ii, 13 ; iii, 5, 12 ; iv, 2, 9 ; v, 19 ; vii, 1 ; ix, 9, 13, 15 : and to national insti- tutions and customs, ii, 8 ; iii, 15 ; iv, 4 ; v, 21 ; vi, 4-6, 10 ; viii, 5, 10, 14. The book presupposes a pop- ular acquaintance with the Pentateuch (see Hengsten- berg, Bcitrdge zur Einleitung ins Alte Testament, i, 83- 125), and implies that the ceremonies of religion, ex- cept where corrupted by Jeroboam I, were in accord- ance with the law of Moses. As the book is evidently
not a series of detached prophecies, but logically and artistically connected in its several parts, it was prob- ably written by Amos as we now have it after his re- turn to Tekoah from his mission to Bethel (see Ewald, Propheten des Alien Bundes, i, 84 sq.) (Smith, s. v.).
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 tho minor prophets. It is also in the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the 60th canon of the Council of Laodicea. Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho (§ 22), quotes a considerable part of the fifth and sixth chap- ters, which he introduces by saying, " Hear how he speaks concerning these by Amos, one of the twelve." There are two quotations from it in the New Testa- ment ; the first (v, 25, 26) by the proto-martyr Ste- phen, Acts vii, 42; the second (ix, 11) by the Apostle James, Acts xv, 16. (See, generally, Knobel, Prophet. ii, 147 sq. ; Hitzig, Kl. Proph. p. 29 ; Carpzov, Inlrod. iii, 314 sq. ; Eichhorn, Einkit. iv, 307 sq. ; Jahn, II, ii, 401 sq. ; Bertholdt, iv, 1G11 sq. ; Davidson, in Home's Jntrod. new ed. ii, 9G0 sq.). — Kitto, s. v.