The prophet, undaunted by Amaziah's threats, in simple language declares that he does not practise prophecying as a profession or to gain a livelihood, but in obedience to the voice of God. The exercise of the prophetical office was restricted neither to sex nor rank.
There were many prophetesses in Israel, e.g. Deborah ( 4:1-24.), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14); and besides a large number of nameless prophets there are twenty-three whose names are preserved in Holy Writ, omitting those whose writings have come down to us (Ladd, 'Doctrine of Scripture,' 1:117, etc.
). A prophet's son; i.e. brought up in the schools of the prophets, the pupils of which were called "sons of the prophets" (see 1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:5). Amos was neither self-commissioned nor trained in any human institution.
A herdman (boger); usually "a cowherd;" here "a shepherd;" αἰπόλος. A gatherer of sycomore fruit. The phrase, boles shiqmim, may mean either one who plucks mulberry figs for his own sustenance, or one who cultivates them for others.
The latter is probably the meaning of the term here. The Septuagint rendering, κνίζων συκάμινα, "pricking sycamore fruit," and that of the Vulgate, vellicans sycomoros, indicate the artificial means for ripening the fruit, which was done by scraping, scratching, or puncturing it, as is sometimes done to the figs of commerce.
As the tree bore many crops of fruit in the year, it would afford constant employment to the dresser.