Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among theDead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q78 (4QXIIc; 75–50 BCE) with extant verse 1?;[7] 4Q82 (4QXIIg; 25 BCE) with extant verses 3‑7, 9–15;[8][9][10] 5Q4 (5QAmos; 50 BCE–50 CE) with extant verses 2–‑5[9][11] andWadi Murabba'at (MurXII; 75–100 CE) with extant verses 5–15[9][12]
"Amos" (meaning in Hebrew "a burden") was a shepherd ofTekoa, a small town of Judah, a region more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. Amos therefore owned and tended flocks, and collected sycamore figs.Amos 7:14, 15) implies that Amos belongs to a "humble rank".[5]
"Herdmen" (Hebrew:noked): the same as found in2 Kings 3:4, applied to Mesha, King of Moab, a great "sheepmaster": hence some have considered that Amos was not a mere mercenary, but a rich possessor of flocks. However (Amos 7:14, 15) states that his position is of a "poor labouring man".[16]
"Concerning Israel" or rather "upon Israel": heavy words coming upon the heavy transgressions of Israel. The preceding word "saw" is not of mere sight, but of a vision given by God. Amos only says that they were "his" words, in order immediately to add, that they came to him from God, that he himself was but the human organ through which God spake.[17]
"Tekoa", a small town of Judah, six miles southeast fromBethlehem, and twelve from Jerusalem, on the borders of the great desert (2 Chronicles 20:20; compare2 Chronicles 11:6). The region being sandy was more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes.[5] Maundrell says[18] it is nine miles distant, to the south of it; and, according toJerome,[19] it was twelve miles from Jerusalem; although he says elsewhere,[20] that "Thecua", or Tekoa, is a village at this day, nine miles from Aelia or Jerusalem, of which place was Amos the prophet, and where his sepulchre is seen: either there is a mistake of the number, or of Aelia for Bethlehem; the former rather seems to be the case; according to Josephus,[21] it was not far from the castle of Herodium.[22]
"Two years before the earthquake": which was well known in those times, and fresh in memory. Zechariah speaks of it many years after, mentioning that it was in the days of Uzziah,Zechariah 14:5. The Jewish writers generally say that it was when Uzziah was smote with leprosy for invading the priest's office; and was in the year in which he died, when Isaiah had a vision of the glory of the Lord, and the posts of the house moved,Isaiah 6:1; and with whom Josephus[23] agrees; who also relates, that "the temple being rent by the earthquake, the bright light of the sun shone upon the king's face, and the leprosy immediately seized him; and, at a place before the city called Eroge, half part of a mountain towards the west was broken and rolled half a mile towards the eastern part, and there stood, and stopped up the ways, and the king's gardens"; but this cannot be true, as Theodoret observes; since, according to this account, Amos must begin to prophesy in the fiftieth year of Uzziah; for he reigned fifty two years, and he began his reign in the twenty seventh year of Jeroboam,2 Kings 15:1; who reigned forty one years,2 Kings 14:23; so that Uzziah and he were contemporary fourteen years only, and Jeroboam must have been dead thirty six years when it was the fiftieth of Uzziah; whereas they are here represented as contemporary when Amos began to prophesy, which was but two years before the earthquake; so that this earthquake must be in the former and not the latter part of Uzziah's reign, and consequently not when he was stricken with the leprosy.[22]
The verses which introduce God's judgments on Israel and her neighbours, in this chapter and in chapter 2, all use aliterary device known as anumerical proverb or graded numerical sequence.[25] They indicate an indefinite quantity,[26] and also indicate Amos' intention "to treat his subjectpoetically".[27] These verses have an affinity with the numerical proverbs ofProverbs 30:15-33.[27]
Creationist geologist Steven A. Austin and his colleagues suggested in 2000 that widely separated archaeological excavations in the countries of Israel and Jordan contain lateIron Age (Iron IIb) architecture bearing damage from a great earthquake.[28] Earthquake debris at six sites (Hazor,Deir 'Alla,Gezer,Lachish,Tell Judeideh, and 'En Haseva), is tightly confined stratigraphically to the middle of the 8th century BC, with dating errors of ~30 years.[28] This particular seismic event is further confirmed in 2019 by geologists studying layers of sediment on the floor of theDead Sea.[29]
Amos of Tekoa delivered a speech at the Temple of the Golden Calf in the city ofBethel in the northern kingdom of Israel just "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1), in the middle of eighth century BC whenUzziah was king of Judah andJeroboam II was king of Israel. Amos spoke of the land being shaken (Amos 8:8), houses being smashed (Amos 6:11), altars being cracked (Amos 3:14), and even the Temple at Bethel being struck and collapsing (Amos 9:1). The Amos' Earthquake impacted Hebrew literature immensely.[30] After the gigantic earthquake, no Hebrew prophet could predict a divine visitation in judgment without alluding to an earthquake. Just a few years after the earthquake,Isaiah wrote about the "Day of the Lord" when everything lofty and exalted will be abased at the time when the Lord "ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (Isaiah 2:19, 21). Then, Isaiah saw the Lord in a temple shaken by an earthquake (Isaiah 6:4).[30]Joel repeats the motto ofAmos: "The Lord also will roar out ofZion, and utter his voice fromJerusalem," and adds the seismic theophany imagery "the heavens and the earth shall shake" (Joel 3:16; compareAmos 1:2). After describing a future earthquake and panic during the "Day of the Lord" atMessiah's coming to theMount of Olives,Zechariah says, "Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah" (Zechariah 14:5). The panic caused by Amos' Earthquake must have been the topic of legend in Jerusalem, becauseZechariah asked his readers to recall that terrifying event 230 years later.[30]
In 2005 seismologistNicholas Ambraseys reviewed the literature on historical earthquakes in Jerusalem and specifically the 'Amos' earthquake. He states that "Modern writers date the earthquake to 759 BC and assign to it a magnitude of 8.2, with an intensity in Jerusalem between VIII and IX." He believes that such an earthquake "should have razed Jerusalem to the ground" and states that there is no physical or textual evidence for this. Discussing Zechariah's mention of an earthquake, he suggests that it was a 5th or 4th century insertion and discusses various versions of the passage which describe the event in different ways. He suggests that the differences may be due to a confused reading of the Hebrew words for “shall be stopped up” (ve-nistam), and “you shall flee" (ve-nastem)" and that "by adopting the latter reading as more plausible in relation to the natural phenomenon described, it is obvious that there is no other explanation than a large landslide, which may or may not had been triggered by this or by another earthquake." He also states that a search for changes in the ground resembling those described in Zechariah revealed "no direct or indirect evidence that Jerusalem was damaged."[31] Nonetheless, this earthquake appears to be the largest ever documented on theDead Sea transform fault zone during the last four millennia.[32]
^abJoseph S. Exell; Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones (Editors).The Pulpit Commentary, 23 volumes. First publication: 1890.
^Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Old Testament. London, Blackie & Son, 1884. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Maundrell. Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 88.
^abJohn Gill. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Exposition of the Old and New Testament. Published in 1746–1763. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Flavius Josephus. Antiquities l. 9. c. 10. sect. 4.
^abAustin, S.A., G. W. Franz, and E. G. Frost. 2000.Amos's Earthquake: An extraordinary Middle East seismic event of 750 B.C. International Geology Review. 42 (7): 657–671.
^abcOgden, K. 1992. The earthquake motif in the book of Amos. In Schunck, K., and M. Augustin, eds., Goldene apfel in silbernen schalen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 69–80; Freedman, D.N., and A. Welch. 1994. Amos's earthquake and Israelite prophecy. In Coogan, M.D., J. C. Exum, and L. E. Stager, eds., Scripture and other artifacts: essays on the Bible, and archaeology in honor of Philip J. King. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 188–198.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Codex Sinaiticus".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.