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Old Testament

Amos

9 chapters

Start reading: Amos 1

About this book

Amos is a shepherd and fig farmer from the southern village of Tekoa who is sent north to speak to the prosperous kingdom of Israel. He begins by announcing judgment on the surrounding nations, then turns the same verdict on Israel and Judah themselves. His charge is not mainly about missing rituals. It is about injustice: the poor sold over small debts, courts that favor the rich, luxury built on others' hardship, and worship that is loud but disconnected from daily life. God reminds Israel that being chosen brings responsibility, not immunity. A series of visions shows locusts, fire and a plumb line, and the priest Amaziah tries to silence the prophet and send him home. Amos holds his ground. The book ends with a vision of coming disaster and then with a promise that God will rebuild David's fallen house and restore his people to their land. Christians hear in Amos a lasting demand that faith and justice belong together, and the New Testament uses the closing promise when it speaks of Gentiles joining God's people.

Author
The prophet Amos of Tekoa, a herdsman and tender of sycamore figs.
Date
Mid-eighth century BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, two years before a well-remembered earthquake.
Audience
The northern kingdom of Israel, gathered at its sanctuary in Bethel, and by extension Judah.

Themes

Justice for the poorWorship without hypocrisyPrivilege and responsibilityJudgment on the nationsHope of restoration

Outline

  1. 1:1–2:16Judgment on the nations, Judah and Israel
  2. 3:1–4:13Why Israel is accountable
  3. 5:1–6:14Seek God, not empty ritual or comfort
  4. 7:1–7:17Locusts, fire, a plumb line and the priest Amaziah
  5. 8:1–8:14The basket of summer fruit and a famine of the word
  6. 9:1–9:10The last vision: no escape from judgment
  7. 9:11–9:15David's house rebuilt and the land restored

Key verses

Amos 5:21-24Amos 3:2Amos 9:11-12

Chapters of Amos

  1. 1Amos 1Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, sees the word of the Lord roaring from Zion two years before the earthquake.
  2. 2Amos 2The pattern of judgment continues with Moab, which burned the bones of Edom's king to lime, and Judah, which rejected the law of the Lord and followed false gods.
  3. 3Amos 3God addresses the whole family he brought out of Egypt: you only have I chosen of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your sins.
  4. 4Amos 4Amos calls the wealthy women of Samaria cows of Bashan for crushing the poor while demanding drinks from their husbands.
  5. 5Amos 5Amos raises a funeral lament over fallen Israel, then turns to a call to seek the Lord and live, not Bethel, Gilgal or Beersheba.
  6. 6Amos 6Amos pronounces woe on those who are at ease in Zion and secure on Samaria's mountain, notable leaders in the first of nations.
  7. 7Amos 7Amos sees three visions.
  8. 8Amos 8A basket of ripe summer fruit becomes a wordplay: the end has come for my people Israel.
  9. 9Amos 9Amos sees the Lord standing by the altar, commanding that the temple's pillars be struck so that the roof falls on everyone's head.
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