§ II. .AUTHOR. Amoe ie the third of the minor prophets. His name is usual1y taken to signify "Carrier," but is better interpreted "Heavy" or "Barden," in allusion to the grievous message which he had to deliver. Jewish com- mentators suggest that he was so called because he stammered or was slow of speech, as St. Paul says of himself that his speech was considered con- temptible. In old time he was by some confounded with Amoz, the father of Isaiah; but the final letter of the two names is different, being samec in the case of the prophet, and tzadi in that of the other. The name does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament; but in St. Luke's genealogy of our Lord (iii. 25), we meet with an Amos, son of Naum and father of Mattathias. Amos was, as 'he himself tells, a native of Tekoah, a small town of Judah, situate on a hill about five miles south of Bethlehem, lying- in a pastoral district. "A road," says Dr. Tho·mson, "leads from Hebron, through a rough and mostly deserted region, to Tekua, the ancient. Tekoah . . . . The ruins of that city are some three miles south of thet Pools of Solomon, and cover a broad swell of the mountain, which runs up, to a great height towards the south-west" (' The Land and the Book,' pp. 304, 830). "Tekoa," says Mr. Porter, "is now, and bas been for ages, an uninhabited waste. So complete bas been the overthrow that I could not find even a fragment of a wall sufficient to shade me from the scorching- sun. The ruins are scattered over the broad summit of one of the highest. hills in the Jndman range. The view is magnificent and full of interest. On the west is seen the sweep of the range from Mizpah to Hebron ; on the east, 'the wilderness of Judah' sinks down, white, rugged, bare, to the Dead Sea. In that wilderness David kept his sheep, and afterwards wandered a refugee from the court of Saul. On the north, a few miles off, I saw Bethlehem. To the right, in the bottom of a wild ravine, is thet cave of Adullam. Further down, on the shores of the Dead Sea, are ' the cliffs of the wild goats,' from whose side springs the fountain of Engedi. And beyond the sea is the wall-like ridge of Moab, and to the south the ruddy-tinted mountains of Edom. A mournful and solitary silence broods over that wonderful panorama. In the touching words of the old Hebrew prophet, ' the earth mourneth and languisheth ' " (' Travels in Palestine,' p. 20). From Tekoah came the wise woman who, suborned by Joab, made use· of a parable to incline David's heart to his banished son .Absalom (2 Sam. xiv.). It was also one of the places fortified by Rehoboam as a defence against invasion from the south (2 Chron. x:i. 6). Thither J onatban and Simon, the Maccabeans, fled to escape the attack of Bacchides (see 1 Mace. ix. 33, etc.). At this place Amos was born. At first a herdsman and a poor- iv INTRODUCTION TO
cultivator of sycamore trees (eh. vii. 14), he received the Divine call, and, untrained in the schools, no prophet nor prophet's son, was sent to prophesy against Israel. So, like an apostle, leaving all at his Master's word, travel- ling from J ndah he c,ame to Bethel, the temple and summer palace of the king, in order to raise his voice against the worship of the calf which pre- vailed there in profane union with the service of Jehovah. Here he was opposed by Amaziah, the idolatrous high priest, who complained of him to the king as a dangerous conspirator. He was accordingly banished from the northern kingdom, and compelled to return to J ndah, where probably he composed the book in the form in which it has reached our hands. But he seems to have found opportunity to deliver his stern message in Samaria (eh. iii 9; iv. 1) before his final expulsion at Bethel; for Amaziah complains that he had "conspired in the midst of the house of Israel," and that "the land was not able to bear his words" (eh. vii. 10). Though of such humble extraction, Amos had an eye to the geographical peculiarities of his native land, so as to use with effect his knowledge of various localities ; nor was he unacquainted with the history of hie own and other countries. Tradition (ap. Pseudo-Epiph., c. xii., 'De Vit. Proph.') asserts that he was cruelly maltreated at Bethel, and returned to Tekoah only to die. His tomb there was still shown in St. Jerome's time. § III. DATE. Amos is said (eh. i. l) to have prophesied" in the days of Uzziah King of .Tuda.h, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel." Uzziah's reign (according to data corrected by Assyrian monuments) lasted from B.c. 792 to 740, and Jeroboam's from B.C. 790 to 749. The time specified above probably refers to the period during which the two monarchs were contemporaneous, viz. from B.C. 790 to 749, e. period of forty-one years. Another computation assigns Jeroboam's reign to B.o. 816-775; but there is still some uncertainty about the exact date. Hence we cannot determine the time of our prophecy with perfect satisfaction. It could not have been the commencement of Jeroboam's reign, as Amos intimates that this king had already overcome his enemies e.nd Tegained his lost territory ( eh. vi. 2, 13, compared with 2 Kings xiv. 25) ; nor could it have been the end, because he makes no mention of the Assyrians who about that time were beginning to threaten Palestine. The further specification in the text, "two years before the earthquake," is not determinate, as that event is not mentioned in the historical books. One that happened in Uzziah's day, as Jewish tradition said, in consequence of or coincident with his usurpation of the priest's office (Josephus, 'Ant.,' ix. 10), was well remembered some centuries afterwards (Zech. xiv. 5), and is perhaps alluded to elsewhere (e.g. Joel iii. 16; Isa. ii. 19); but we are unable to fix: the date of the occurrence. Every detail in the prophecy confirms the authenticity of the statement in the introduction. Jeroboam is mentioned (eh. vii. 10), and the circumstances of his time, as we noted THE BOOK OF AMOS. V'
above, are e.ccure.tely alluded to. The taking of Ga.th by Uzziah is inferred ( oh. vi. 2 compared with 2 Ohron. xxvi. 6). The prophet uttered his warnings, not at intervals during all the period named, but at some definite time therein, and probably during a very short space. He must have been contemporaneous with, if not e. little ea.rlier than Hose&, and later than Joel, as he takes np this prophet's words in the commencement of his own prediction (comp. eh. i 2 with Joel iii. 16), aDd quotes him in eh. ix. 13 (see Introduction to Joel), § IV. GENERAL CHAB.AOTBB.