[313] Amos vii. 1. Famine (iv. 6); drought (iv. 7, 8); yellow blight and locusts (iv. 9); pestilence (iv. 10); earthquake and burning (iv. 11).
[314] Amos vii. 4.
[315] Amos i. 1, iii. 14, iv. 11, viii 8; Zech. xiv. 5: "Ye shall flee like as ye fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah." Josephus says that in an earthquake a little before the birth of Christ ten thousand were buried under the ruined houses (_Antt._, XV. v. 2), and he has many Rabbinic haggadoth to tell us about the earthquake, which, he says, happened at the moment when Uzziah burnt incense in the Temple (_Antt._, IX. x. 4).
[316] According to Hind, they took place on June 15th, B.C. 763, and February 9th, B.C. 784. Amos alludes to the capture of Gath by Uzziah, of Calneh (_Ktesiphon_), and of Hamath (vi. 2; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6). Gath henceforth disappears from the Philistian Pentapolis (Amos i. 7, 8; Zeph. ii. 4; Zech. ix. 5).
[317] Or "dresser of sycomore-trees" (R.V.). LXX., κνίζων συκάμινα; Vulg., _vellicans sycomoros_. The sycomore-fruit (fruit of the _Ficus sycomorus_, or wild fig) is ripened by puncturing it (Theoph., _H. Plant._, iv. 2; Pliny, _H. N._, xiii. 14).
[318] The well-known town of Tekoa had been Solomon's horse-fair, and had been fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6). It lay in a wild country six miles south of Bethlehem (2 Chron. xx. 20; 1 Macc. ix. 33; Robinson, _Bibl. Res._, i. 486). For a fuller account of these prophets, I must refer to my book on _The Minor Prophets_ in the "Men of the Bible" Series. It has always been assumed that Amos belonged to the well-known Tekoa, and was therefore a subject of the Southern Kingdom. In recent days this has become uncertain. No sycomores grow or can grow on the bleak uplands of Tekoa (Tristram, _Nat. Hist. of the Bible_, p. 397); so that Jerome, in his preface to Amos, thinks that "brambles" are intended. Even Kimchi conjectured that Tekoa was an unknown town in the tribe of Asher. Amos's allusions to scenery are all applicable to the Northern landscape.
[319] Amos i. 1-ii. 5.
[320] Amos ii. 6-13.
[321] Amos iii. 9-15.
[322] Amos iv. 1-13.
[323] This title, "Jehovah-Tsebaoth," now begins to occur. It is not found in the Hexateuch. It probably means "Lord of the _starry hosts_." Contact with Assyria first made the Israelites acquainted with star-worship. Amos alludes to the Pleiades and Orion (v. 8: comp. Job ix. 9, xxxviii. 31). Star-worship is forbidden in Deuteronomy. In Amos v. 26 the true meaning is that the Israelites _would take with them, on their road to exile_, Sakkuth (Moloch?) and Kewan (the god-star Saturn).
[324] Amos vi. 1-14.
[325] Amos vii. 1-9.
[326] Strange as it may seem, the early authority for the existence of any calf at Dan is very slight, and the extreme uncertainty of the reading and interpretation in one main passage (1 Kings xii. 32) makes it at least possible that there were _two calves at Bethel_, and that at Dan there was no calf, but only the old idolatrous ephod of Micah, still served by the servant of Moses. See additional note at the end of the volume.
[327] Amos iii. 2.
[328] That the chief priest of Bethel bore the name "Jehovah is strong" shows once more that "calf-worship" was in no sense a _substitute_ for the worship of Jehovah.
[329] This was not quite accurate; he had rather prophesied the devastation of the high places (vii. 9). In fact, his words had often been very vague. "_Thus_ will I do unto thee" (iv. 12).
[330] Amos ix. 11-15. Comp. Hos. iii. 5.
[331] The exaggerated haggadoth of later days say that Amaziah had Amos beaten with leaded thongs, and that he was carried home in a dying state (Epiphan., _Opp._, ii. 145), to which there is a supposed allusion in Heb. xi. 35: ἄλλοι δὲ ἐτυμπανίσθησαν.