book of amos Summary and Overview

The Book of Amos consists of three parts: (1.) The nations around are summoned to judgment because of their sins (1:1-2:3). He quotes Joel 3:16. (2.) The spiritual condition of Judah, and especially of Israel, is described (2:4-6:14). (3.) In 7:1-9:10 are recorded five prophetic visions. (a) The first two (7:1-6) refer to judgments against the guilty people. (b) The next two (7:7-9; 8:1-3) point out the ripeness of the people for the threatened judgements. 7:10-17 consists of a conversation between the prophet and the priest of Bethel. (c) The fifth describes the overthrow and ruin of Israel (9:1-10); to which is added the promise of the restoration of the kingdom and its final glory in the Messiah's kingdom. The style is peculiar in the number of the allusions made to natural objects and to agricultural occupations. Other allusions show also that Amos was a student of the law as well as a "child of nature." These phrases are peculiar to him: "Cleanness of teeth" [i.e., want of bread] (4:6); "The excellency of Jacob" (6:8; 8:7); "The high places of Isaac" (7:9); "The house of Isaac" (7:16); "He that createth the wind" (4:13). Quoted, Acts 7:42.

The book of the prophecies of Amos seems to be divided into four principal portions closely connected together. (1) From 1:1 to 2:3 he denounces the sins of the nations bordering on Israel and Judah. (2) From 2:4 to 6:14 he describes the state of those two kingdoms, especially, the former. (3) From 7:1 to 9:10 he relates his visit to Bethel, and sketches the impending punishment of Israel. At last he promises blessings. The chief peculiarity of the style consists in the number of allusions to natural objects and agricultural occupations, as might be expected from the early life of the author.

THE PROPHECY OF AMOS is the thirtieth in the order of the books of the Old Testament, and is full of interest and instruction. It may be considered as a sort of continuation of Joel's. It is a unit. It begins with the declaration of God's judgments against Israel's neighbors. But in this storm of fury Judah does not escape while Israel stands the brunt of it. Am 1-2:6. The sins of Israel are rebuked. Am 2:6-6:14. The rebukes are followed by a series of symbols, which are interpreted. Am 7:1-9:7. But the book closes with the promise of good. The "tabernacle of David" is to be restored. Thus the beauty and perpetuity of the Christian Church are foretold. It has been remarked as a peculiar feature of this prophecy that it abounds with illustrations drawn from husbandry and the scenes of rustic life; it certainly contains some of the most perfect specimens of sublime thought and beautiful expression that are to be found in any language.

The book is logically connected, and is divisible into four parts. Amos 1:1 to Amos 2:13; the sins of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, the neighbors of Israel and Judah Amos 2:4 to Amos 6:14; Israel's own state and consequent punishment; the same coasts "from the entering in of Hamath," which Jeroboam has just recovered from Syria, shall be "afflicted," and the people carried into "captivity beyond Damascus" (Amos 5:27). Amos 7:1-9:10; Amos's visions of grasshoppers devouring the grass, and fire the land and deep, both removed by his intercession; the plumb line marking the buildings for destruction; Amaziah's interruption at Bethel, and foretold doom; the basket of summer fruits marking Israel's end by the year's end; the Lord standing upon the altar, and commanding the lintel to be smitten, symbolizing Israel's destruction as a kingdom, but individually not one righteous man shall perish. Amos 9:11-15; David's fallen tabernacle shall be raised, the people re-established in prosperity in their own land, no more to be pulled out, and the conversion of the pagan shall follow the establishment of the theocracy finally; compare Amos 9:12 with Acts 15:17. Reference to agricultural life and the phenomena of nature abounds, in consonance with his own former occupation, an undesigned propriety and mark of truth: Amos 1:3; Amos 2:13; Amos 3:4-5; Amos 4:2; Amos 4:7; Amos 4:9; Amos 5:18-19; Amos 6:12; Amos 7:1; Amos 9:3; Amos 9:9; Amos 9:13-14. The first six chapters are without figure; the last three symbolical, with the explanation subjoined. He assumes his readers' knowledge of the Pentateuch, and that the people's religious ritual (excepting the golden calves) accords with the Mosaic law, an incidental confirmation of the truth of the Pentateuch. Stephen (Acts 7:42) quotes Amos 5:25-27; and James (Acts 15:16) quotes Amos 9:11. Philo, Josephus, the Talmud, Justin Martyr, the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the council of Laodicea, confirm the canonicity of Amos. His use of the names Adonai (Lord) and God of hosts marks that Jehovah, Israel's covenant God, is universal Lord. Characteristic and peculiar phrases occur: "cleanness of teeth," i.e., want of bread (Amos 4:6); "the excellency of Jacob" (Amos 6:8; Amos 8:7); "the high places of Isaac" (Amos 7:9), "the house of Isaac" (Amos 7:16); "he that createth the wind" (Amos 4:13). Hosea, his contemporary, survived him a few years.