This book in the Hebrew Bibles is called "Sepher Amos", the Book of Amos; and, in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, the Prophecy of Amos. This is not the same person with the father of Isaiah, as some have ignorantly confounded them; for their names are wrote with different letters; besides, the father of Isaiah is thought to have been of the royal family, and a courtier; whereas this man was a country farmer and herdsman.
His name signifies "burdened": the Jews say he was so called, because burdened in his tongue, or had an impediment in his speech, and stammered; but rather because his prophecies were burdens to the people, such as they could not bear, being full of reproofs and threatenings; however, his prophecy in this respect agrees with his name.
What time he lived may be learned from Am 1:1; by which it appears that he was, contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea; but whether he lived and prophesied so long as they did is not certain. The author of Seder Olam Zuta makes him to prophesy in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
R. Abraham Zacut , and R. David Ganz , place him later than Hosea, and prior to Isaiah; they say that Amos received the law from Hosea, and Isaiah from Amos. Mr. Whiston makes him to begin to prophesy in the year of the world 3231 A.
M. or 773 B.C.; and Mr. Bedford earlier, in 802 B.C.; and, from some passages in his prophecy, he appears to be of the land of Judah; see Am 1:1; though he prophesied in the land of Israel, and against the ten tribes chiefly; the occasion of which was, Jeroboam had been very successful and victorious, and the people under him enjoyed great plenty and prosperity, and upon this grew wanton, luxurious, and very sinful; wherefore this prophet was sent to reprove them for their sins, to exhort them to repentance, and threaten them with captivity, in case of impenitence; and to comfort the truly godly with promises of the Messiah's coming and kingdom.
The authenticity of this book is not to be questioned, since many passages out of it were taken by following prophets, as the words in Am 1:2, by Joel, Joe 3:16, and by Jeremiah, Jer 25:30; Am 4:9, by Haggai, Hag 2:17; Am 9:13, by Joel, Joe 3:18; and others are quoted by the writers of the New Testament as divinely inspired, as Am 5:25, in Ac 7:42; nor is there any room to doubt of his being the writer of this book, as is manifest of his speaking of himself as the first person in it; though Hobbes says it does not appear.
Some have thought that his language is rustic, suitable to his former character and employment; but certain it is there are masterly strokes and great beauties of eloquence in it; and which shows that it is more than human.
According to some writers, he was often beat and buffeted by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel; and at last the son of the priest drove a nail into his temples, upon which he was carried alive into his own country, and there died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his ancestors at Tekoa .
Vajikra Rabba, sect. 10. fol. 153. 3. Abarbinel Praefat. in Ezek. fol. 253. 3. P. 104, 105. Ed. Meyer. Juchasin, fol. 12. 1. Tzemach David, fol. 13. 1. 2. Chronological Table, cent. 8. Scripture Chronology, B.
6. c. 2. p. 647. Leviathan, c. 33. Pseudo-Epiphan. de Prophet. Vit. c. 12. Isidor. de Vit. Sanct. c. 43. Jerom. de locis Hebr. in voce Elthei, fol. 91. B.INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 1This chapter begins with the general title of the book, in which the author is described by name, and by his condition of life, and by his country, and the time of his prophecy fixed, Am 1:1.
He first foretells a drought in the land of Israel, in the most fruitful places, which would cause mourning among the shepherds, Am 1:2; then the captivity of the Syrians, whose metropolis was Damascus, Am 1:3.
Next the destruction of the Philistines, whose principal cities were Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, and Ekron, Am 1:6. After that the ruin of Tyre, with the reason of it, Am 1:9; then the calamities that should come upon Edom, whose chief places were Teman and Bozrah, Am 1:11; and lastly the desolations of the Ammonites, whose metropolis, Rabbah, should be destroyed, and their king and princes go into captivity, Am 1:13; and all this for the sins of each of these nations.
Ver. 1. The words of Amos,.... Not which he spoke of or for himself, but from the Lord; all the prophecies, visions, and revelations made unto him, are intended:who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; which was not in the tribe of Asher, as Kimchi; nor of Zebulun, as Pseudo-Epiphanius ; but in the tribe of Judah, 2Ch 11:5.
It lay to the south, and was six miles from Bethlehem. Mr. Maundrell says it is nine miles distant, to the south of it; and, according to Jerom , it was twelve miles from Jerusalem; though he elsewhere says, 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 , it was not far from the castle of Herodium.
The Misnic doctors speak of it as famous for oil, where the best was to be had; near to it was a wilderness, called the wilderness of Tekoa; and Jerom says, that beyond it there was no village, nor so much as huts and cottages, but a large wilderness, which reached to the Red sea, and to the borders of the Persians, Ethiopians, and Indians, and was full of shepherds, among whom Amos was; whether he was a master herdsman, or a servant of one, is not said.
The word is used of the king of Moab, who is said to be a "sheepmaster", 2Ki 3:4; he traded in cattle, and got riches thereby; and so the Targum here renders it,"who was lord or master of cattle;''and Kimchi interprets it, he was a great man among the herdsmen; and so it was a piece of self-denial to leave his business, and go to prophesying; but rather he was a servant, and kept cattle for others, which best agrees with Am 7:14; and so is expressive of the grace of God in calling so mean a person to such a high office.
The word used signifies to mark; and shepherds were so called from marking their sheep to distinguish them, which seems to be the work of servants; and, in the Arabic language, a kind of sheep deformed, and of short feet, are so called:which he saw concerning Israel; or, against Israel , the ten tribes, to whom he was sent, and against whom he prophesied chiefly; for he says very little of Judah.
Words are more properly said to be spoken or heard; but here they are said to be seen; which shows that not bare words are meant, but things, which the prophet had revealed to him in a visionary way, and he delivered; see Isa 2:1;in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; who was also called Azariah, 2Ki 15:1;and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel; so he is called to distinguish him from Jeroboam the son of Nebat; this king was the grandson of Jehu; he was, as Jerom says, before Sardanapalus reigned over the Assyrians, and Procas Sylvius over the Latines:two years before the earthquake; which was well known in those times, and fresh in memory.
Zechariah speaks of it many years after, from whom we learn it was in the days of Uzziah, Zec 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, Isa 6:1; and with whom Josephus 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, 2Ki 15:1; who reigned forty one years, 2Ki 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.
De Vita Prophet. c. 12. Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 88. Proem. in Amos & Comment. in Jer. vi. 1. De locis Hebr. in voce Elthei, fol. 91. B. De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 9. sect. 5. Misn. Menachot, c.
8. sect. 3. Proem. in Amos. larvy le "contra Israelem", so some in Drusius. Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect.