Jensens survey of the old testament adam 237

I. BACKGROUND
A. THE MAN AMOS

1. Name and family. The name Amos
means “burden-bearer” (from the Hebrew
root amas, “to carry”). No reference is made
in the book to any relative, including Amos’s


father. The fact that his father is not named
may suggest a very humble birth. There is
no reference to Amos in any other Bible
book.7
Amos was a native of Tekoa, a small
village some six miles south of Bethlehem,
overlooking the Dead Sea. The town was
just a few miles from the busy caravan route
linking Jerusalem with Hebron and Beersheba (see Map W). In this barren hill
country, Amos was a herdsman of sheep and
goats, and a grower of sycamore gs (1:1;
7:14).8 As a wool merchant he probably
made many trips into the northern cities of
Israel and saw rsthand the religious and
social corruption of its people.
2. Ministry as a prophet God called Amos
to be a prophet while he was tending his
ock (7:15). Recall that David’s commission
came as he tended his sheep (1 Sam 16:11-


13); and Gideon was called from a threshing

oor (Judg 6:11-14). Amos’s ministry was
mainly to the Northern Kingdom of Israel
(1:1; 7:14-15), even though he also
preached to Judah and the surrounding
foreign nations. We might ask why God sent
a native of Judah to prophesy to the
Northern Kingdom of Israel. James
Robertson says the reason is not far to seek.
It is the manner of the prophets to
appear where they are most needed; and
the Northern Kingdom about that time
had come victorious out of war [2
Kings 14:25], and had reached its
culmination of wealth and power, with
the attendant results of luxury and
excess, while the Southern Kingdom
had been enjoying a period of outward
tranquillity and domestic content.9

The message God wanted to deliver to


Israel was strong and severe, so God chose
for His messenger a man who had withstood
the rigors of a disciplined life, and who
knew what hardness was. In the howling
wildernesses around Tekoa, life was full of
poverty and danger—it was an empty and
silent world. Amos knew God, and he knew
the Scriptures, even though he was not

trained in the school of the prophets (7:14).
Living in Tekoa was ideal preparation for his
task and was just as much of God as was his
call. His prophetic ministry lasted about ten
years (765-755 B.C.).
B. THE BOOK OF AMOS

1. Author and date. Amos wrote this book
toward the end of Jeroboam’s reign, around
760 B.C. Most of the nine chapters are “the
words” (i.e., messages, or sermons) of Amos
(1:1). One narrative section appears at 7:1017.