Unlike some of the Minor prophets, so called because they are a lot shorter in length than the Major prophets, Amos can be placed in a very narrow place in history.
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
This is how Amos opens, and it presents us with things we can use to ‘hang’ an identification on. Obviously, we can’t be absolutely sure, but barring counter-evidence we know that Amos must have operated during the rule of Jeroboam II, between 788 and 747 BCE. The earthquake turns out to be a historical event we can narrow down even further, with some verifiable evidence, to somewhere between 765 and 760 BCE.
So Amos is prophecizing during the period of Judah and Israel as two separate kingdoms. prior to the Babylonian captivity, or the fall of Judah. This puts him a bit distinct from most of the other prophets we have dealt with.
Amos’ themes start out similar in some respects; a look at Israel and the surrounding nations, then details of the sins of Israel. We then get visions God sends the prophet, which include visions of retribution and punishment. God’s chosen people must be moral and are not exempt from Gods judgement but a focus of it. We see here an example of God as the god of all people, wich is an interesting juxtaposition from the usual structure of most old testament books which seem interested in other peoples only as instruments of gods justice.
Another theme that is highlighted in Amos that isn’t in all other prophets is the centrality of the responsibility of the wealthy to the poor. The sins of Israel include the wealthy exploiting the poor, and has similar themes to popular works from other era’s and times; poor people turning away from the honest work because they are exploited and going into corrupt work, in this case growing oil and grapes for export rather than local foods. While there have been shades of this elsewhere, this is the clearest example I think I have seen in the Old testament of a duty to the poor, though also, one must not, an expectation of social hierarchy. I do wonder if the poor farmers growing grapes really did think their lives better growing food for subsistence living?
Because Amos is possibly the oldest of the minor Prophets, some of his wording and elements have already shown up in previous works and will again. References to national sins, comparison with other states, and of course, an angry God who meets out judgement which is only averted by returning to grace.
Well try to keep rolling right along and go into Obadiah, possibly do that with Jonah, as they are both really short.
Future Scribe 