Old Testament · Prophecy · book 30 of 66 · 1 min read
The book of Amos
A farmer walks north into the wealthiest years the northern kingdom ever had and tells them their worship is offensive because of how they treat the poor.
“But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 9
- Author
- Amos, a shepherd and fig farmer from Tekoa
- Written
- Eighth century BC
- Written for
- A prosperous kingdom at the height of its confidence
- Themes
- justice, economics, worship rejected, the poor
What it is about
Amos was not a professional prophet — he says so explicitly — but a herdsman who arrived from the southern kingdom during a period of prosperity and told the north it was finished.
His charge is economic and specific: selling the needy for a pair of sandals, trampling the poor, taking bribes, dishonest scales, and doing all of this while maintaining an impeccable religious calendar. Chapter 5 contains the most withering rejection of worship in the Bible — the festivals despised, the songs refused — followed by the demand that justice roll down like water.
It is nine chapters and it is relentless, with only the last few verses turning toward restoration.
Where to start
Chapter 5, which contains the rejection of the festivals and the line about justice, and is the book in miniature.
The chapters worth knowing
- Amos 1 — The oracles against the neighbours, which lull the audience before turning on them.
- Amos 5 — I hate your festivals — the most withering rejection of worship in the Bible.
- Amos 7 — The confrontation with the priest at Bethel, where Amos insists he is not a professional prophet.
What people get wrong about it
That the justice line is a general aspiration. It is the alternative offered to religious festivals God has just said he hates, and the contrast is the argument.
Questions
What is the main message of Amos?
That worship performed by a society exploiting its poor is offensive rather than neutral. The famous call for justice is stated as the alternative to festivals God says he despises.
Who was Amos?
A herdsman and tender of sycamore figs from Tekoa in the south, who insists he is not a prophet by profession, sent north during the region's most prosperous years.