Amos

Judgments on Israel’s Neighbors. At this time the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (now called Palestine) was inhabited by seven other small nations besides Israel. All of them were in danger because of Assyria’s push toward Egypt. But Amos showed that what was about to befall them would not come from Assyria but from the Creator of all the earth who had revealed himself to Israel in particular. The culpability of these nations demonstrates the biblical principle that one is accountable for what one knows. Thus the first six were judged for sins of common cruelty and brutality, while Judah was judged for failure to keep the Torah (God’s covenant instruction). These judgments by God on Israel’s Gentile neighbors are similar to pronouncements of judgment on various non-Jewish nations in the writings of other prophets (see chart; cf. Genesis 19). They are a reminder that God’s moral standards as revealed in the Bible are not merely for Jewish people, or for Jews and Christians in the NT period, but that God holds all people and all nations and cultures accountable to his moral standards, whether they have them in written form or simply in their hearts and consciences (see also Rom. 1:18–32; 2:14–15; and note on Amos 2:1–3).

Superscription. The first verse identifies the book’s speaker, audience, and time frame. Amos addresses Israel during the time covered in 2 Kings 14:23–15:7, which is the period between the accession of Jeroboam II (796 B.C.) and the death of Uzziah (739); more specifically, it is two years before the earthquake. Zechariah, like Amos, mentions an earthquake “in the days of Uzziah king of Judah” (Zech. 14:5). At the site of Hazor in the eighth century B.C., archaeologists uncovered walls that were tilted (Stratum VI), perhaps pointing to this very earthquake. However, even if it is uncertain when this particular event took place, this statement is significant because it makes unmistakable the genuine historicity of the book and its message. Shepherds were at or near the bottom of the social order, which underscores the irony of God’s choice of Amos to prophesy against Israel’s wealthy, apostate leaders. (If, on the other hand, the esv footnote [“sheep breeders”] is followed, then Amos may have been a prosperous businessman.) Tekoa was a small village southeast of Bethlehem in Judah.

Despite Israel’s rejection of Jerusalem as the only appropriate place of worship, that was still the place from which God’s voice of judgment issued to all the earth. Carmel. Perhaps an allusion to the encounter between the Lord and Baal, when the Lord struck the top of Mount Carmel with fire, demonstrating that he alone is the true God (1 Kings 18:36–39).

Syria was both a major partner and a rival with Israel in the affairs of the region. It was located north and east of the Sea of Galilee.

three transgressions … four. This poetic expression is used to introduce the judgment upon all seven of the neighboring nations, and upon Israel as well (2:6). It is a way of expressing totality: “three” expresses the plural in Hebrew, and by raising it to “four” the idea of multiplicity is conveyed (see Prov. 30:15, 18, 21). Gilead was on the east side of the Jordan River where the tribe of Gad resided. Syria sought to control that area in part because the highway leading south to the Red Sea and its lucrative trade with Sheba went through it. threshing sledges of iron. One way of separating grain kernels from their hulls was to put all the grain in a pile and then have an ox pull a heavy wooden sledge around on the pile. Amos says Syria has treated the people of Gilead as though they were nothing but a pile of grain, crushing them into the ground.

Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, was the king of Syria during the first years of the eighth century B.C. (see 2 Kings 13:24). Fire is the judgment meted out on all seven neighboring nations (see Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Isa. 29:6; 30:27, 30; 33:14). Against the fire of God not even the most powerful of human strongholds can endure (Amos 1:7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5).

gate-bar. The wooden city gates were fastened shut with a heavy wood bar across them. If that bar were broken, the city could be entered by an invading army. Valley of Aven … Beth-eden. Regions in Syria. Kir is identified in 9:7 as the ancestral home of the Syrians. It is conjectured to be somewhere to the northeast of Mesopotamia. Thus they were being sent back to where they started, with nothing to show for the intervening years. In 2 Kings 16:9 this is where the Assyrians brought the people of Damascus for exile.

Four of the five cities of the Philistines are named in this judgment oracle (Gath is not mentioned). This is because there never was a single enduring capital city of Philistia. Rule of the region went back and forth among the five cities depending on which city’s ruler happened to be strongest at the time. Philistia was located southwest of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean coast.

they carried … to Edom. It is not known precisely what event this refers to. It may be a prediction of events at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 B.C., when Edom was actively assisting the Babylonians in subduing Judah (see Obad. 12–14). This would then be saying that the Philistines were the partners of the Edomites in that affair. But it may also refer to something that had taken place in Amos’s lifetime in the continuing struggles between the Judeans and the Philistines (cf. 2 Chron. 26:6–7). whole people. Probably not an entire national group, but an entire community.

Tyre. The great maritime city of Tyre was northwest of Israel on the Mediterranean coast. With its fine harbor and easily defended island citadel, it was positioned to dominate the sea trade of the eastern Mediterranean (see Isaiah 23; Ezekiel 26–28). Tyre is accused of the same act of inhumanity as the Philistines (Amos 1:6), but it was more heinous because it involved the repudiation of a covenant of brotherhood. This may refer to the covenant that had existed between Solomon and Hiram (1 Kings 5:12), or perhaps to that between Ahab and Eshbaal of Sidon as a result of which Jezebel became Ahab’s wife (1 Kings 16:31).

Edom was located south and southeast of Judah around the southern end of the Dead Sea. Descended from Esau, the Edomites maintained enmity toward Israel, extending at least as far back as Israel’s journey from the wilderness to the plains of Moab prior to crossing the Jordan (Num. 20:14–21). Here the sin for which Edom is judged is implacability—perpetual anger. Teman and Bozrah are Edomite cities.

The Ammonites were located east of the Jordan River between Syria to the north and Moab to the south. Their ancestral territory did not extend all the way west to the Jordan, so they were in constant conflict with the tribes of Reuben and Gad in an effort to extend their border westward to gain control of the desirable region of Gilead where the two Israelite tribes lived. The sin of the Ammonites was the viciousness and brutality of their attacks, without pity even for pregnant women. Ammon’s capital city of Rabbah (see Deut. 3:11) is present-day Amman, Jordan.

exile. When Assyria conquered a nation, they deported the leadership and imported people from elsewhere into the area. This was both a way of defusing any tendency to rebellion and also of homogenizing their diverse empire.