The Book of Amos

Amos stands third among the twelve minor prophets, after Joel and before Abdias (Obadiah); its Vulgate title is Liber Amos. A shepherd from the hills of Juda is sent north to the royal sanctuary of Bethel to tell a prosperous kingdom that God sees the poor it tramples, despises the worship it offers with unjust hands, and will bring its house down. St Jerome, who commented on all twelve minor prophets, wrote to Paulinus that "Amos, although he is only an herdman from the country, a gatherer of sycomore fruit, cannot be explained in a few words." Below this guide, each chapter is given in the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims.

Who wrote the Book of Amos?

The book names its author in its first line: "The words of Amos, who was among herdsmen of Thecua: which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Thecua, the Tekoa of modern Bibles, lay about twelve miles south of Jerusalem. Amos was no professional prophet. When the priest of Bethel ordered him home, he answered: "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock" (Amos 7:14–15). He was not, in Challoner's words, a prophet "by education."

The Church has always received the book as the work of this prophet, inspired by the Holy Ghost, and the Council of Trent names Amos among the twelve prophets in its canon of the sacred books (Session IV, 1546). Challoner's note on Amos 2:13 cites St Jerome's remark that the Spirit of God "accommodates himself to the education of the prophet and inspires him with comparisons taken from country affairs."

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) adds that the book agrees closely with the eighth-century history of 4 Kings and with Osee, and that the arguments against the authenticity of single passages, chiefly the closing promise of chapter 9, are "not strictly conclusive." The Pontifical Biblical Commission gave no decision on Amos; some modern scholars ascribe that promise to later editors; we hold to the book as the Church has handed it down and as St James quoted it in Acts 15.

The Roman Martyrology keeps his memory on 31 March: "At Thecua, in Palestine, the holy prophet Amos, whom the priest Amasias frequently scourged," though the Catholic Encyclopedia regards the accounts of his martyrdom as late legends, and Scripture is silent on his death.

When was the Book of Amos written?

Amos prophesied under Ozias (Uzziah), king of Juda, and Jeroboam II, king of Israel, who reigned forty-one years in Samaria (4 Kings 14:23), about 781 to 741 BC by the reckoning of the Catholic Encyclopedia. The book therefore belongs to the middle of the eighth century before Christ, alongside Osee, Isaias and Micheas. St Augustine (The City of God XVIII, 27) sets Amos with Osee, Isaias and Micheas among the prophets of the days of Ozias whose oracles are contained in books. The earthquake of its title was remembered for centuries: Zacharias 14:5 still recalls how the people "fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda."

Jeroboam II "restored the borders of Israel from the entrance of Emath, unto the sea of the wilderness" (4 Kings 14:25); Amos turns the same words into a threat, a nation that will afflict Israel "from the entrance of Emath, even to the torrent of the desert" (Amos 6:15). Samaria's great men built winter houses, summer houses and houses of ivory while the poor were sold for debt, and at Bethel and Dan the golden calves of the first Jeroboam (3 Kings 12) were still adored. About thirty years later Assyria destroyed Samaria and carried Israel away (722 BC).

What is the Book of Amos about? A summary

The Book of Amos is about the justice of God. The Lord who chose Israel out of all the families of the earth will punish Israel the more for its sins: oppression of the poor, corrupt judges, luxury, and a worship that pretends to honour Him while serving idols. Judgment is certain, but it is not the last word: a remnant will be sifted and saved, and the house of David raised up for all nations.

Oracles against the nations (chapters 1–2)

After the motto, "The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem" (Amos 1), the prophet pronounces judgment on Israel's neighbours, each oracle opening with the same formula: "For three crimes of Damascus, and for four I will not convert it." Challoner reads it as "their many unrepented of crimes." Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom and Ammon are condemned for cruelties in war; in chapter 2 come Moab, then Juda for casting away the law of the Lord, and at last, to the dismay of the listeners at Bethel, Israel itself, "because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes" (2:6).

Three discourses against Israel (chapters 3–6)

Chapter 3 states the principle of the whole book, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities" (3:2), and defends the prophet's mission: "The lion shall roar, who will not fear?

The Lord God hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?" (3:8). Chapter 4 rebukes the "fat kine" of Samaria who crush the poor, mocks the pilgrimages to Bethel and Galgal, and recalls the scourges by which God tried to call Israel back, each closing with "yet you returned not to me." Chapters 5 and 6 lament "the virgin of Israel," plead "seek ye me, and you shall live," and pronounce two woes: on those who desire the day of the Lord, and on "you that are wealthy in Sion," who "sleep upon beds of ivory," "drink wine in bowls," and "are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph" (Amos 6).

Five visions and the priest Amasias (chapters 7:1–9:10)

In chapter 7 the prophet sees locusts and a devouring fire, and twice he intercedes, "O Lord God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little?" and twice the Lord relents. The third vision shows the Lord on a plastered wall with a mason's trowel (the Hebrew is usually rendered "plumb line"): "I will plaster them over no more." Then Amasias, priest of the king's sanctuary at Bethel, accuses Amos of conspiracy and orders him back to Juda, and Amos answers with his calling and a sentence on the priest's house (7:10–17).

The fourth vision, in chapter 8, is "a hook to draw down fruit": "the end is come upon my people Israel" (in the Hebrew, a basket of summer fruit). A discourse follows against merchants who cheat with false balances, foretelling the darkened sun and a famine of the word of God. In the fifth vision (chapter 9) the Lord stands upon the altar: no sinner shall escape, though he go down to hell or climb to heaven, yet "I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob" (9:8).

The tabernacle of David restored (chapter 9:11–15)

The book ends in promise: "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen: and I will close up the breaches of the walls thereof, and repair what was fallen: and I will rebuild it as in the days of old" (Amos 9:11), so that "all nations" upon whom the Lord's name is invoked may be His. The ploughman overtakes the reaper, "the mountains shall drop sweetness," and Israel is planted in its land to be plucked out no more.

The message of Amos and the Catholic reading

The main message of the Book of Amos is that the God of the covenant is the Creator and Judge of all nations, and that privilege increases responsibility. Three short hymns to the Creator proclaim it, ending "the Lord the God of hosts is his name" (4:13) and "the Lord is his name" (5:8; 9:6).

Justice and worship

"I hate, and have rejected your festivities... Take away from me the tumult of thy songs" (Amos 5:21–23). The Catholic reading is careful here. Bethel was not the Temple of Jerusalem: Challoner notes that Bethel, Galgal and Bersabee were "the places where they worshipped their idols," and "the house of the idol" of 7:16 is the golden calf. What God rejects is a schismatic cult offered by men who sold the poor, as Samuel had taught that "obedience is better than sacrifices" (1 Kings 15:22). True worship is never the rival of justice; it demands it.

The poor and the sins that cry to heaven

No prophet speaks more concretely of the poor: debt-slavery for a pair of shoes, garments taken in pledge, bribes at the gate, false measures and weights (Amos 2:6–8; 5:11–12; 8:4–6). The Catechism of St Pius X counts oppression of the poor and defrauding labourers of their wages among the four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance, and the seventh commandment forbids every fraud Amos names. Our journal treats this teaching in what God says about justice, which quotes Amos 5:15, and in what God says about greed; the remedy is the charity of the works of mercy.

Christ and the Church in Amos

St Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV, 33) saw in "the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light" (Amos 8:9) the darkness of the Crucifixion. St Stephen quotes Amos 5:25–27 to the Sanhedrin on Israel's idolatry in the desert (Acts 7:42–43). Above all, St James quotes the promise of chapter 9 at the Council of Jerusalem to show that the Gentiles enter the Church without the Mosaic law: "After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down...

That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all nations upon whom my name is invoked" (Acts 15:16–17). St Augustine reads it so in The City of God (XVIII, 28), and the Douay summary of the chapter speaks of "the conversion of the Gentiles to the church; which shall flourish for ever."

How is the Book of Amos relevant today?

Every prosperous age is tempted as Samaria was: to feast while others are crushed, to keep religion as an ornament of comfort, and to assume that the day of the Lord will be light for us. Amos answers that "the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light" (5:18) for the impenitent, the doctrine of judgment set out in the four last things. His "famine... of hearing the word of the Lord" (8:11) threatens any people that silences its preachers, as Amasias silenced Amos.

Famous verses from the Book of Amos

Amos 3:3. "Shall two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3); and "the Lord God doth nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (3:7).

Amos 4:12. "Be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos 4).

Amos 5:24. "But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent," the verse modern versions render "let justice roll down like waters" (Amos 5).

Amos 7:14. "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs."

Amos 8:11. "I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord" (Amos 8).

Amos 9:11. "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen," which St James applied to the Church of the Gentiles.

Amos in the canon and in the liturgy

Amos is a protocanonical book of the Old Testament, received by the Jews and by all Christians, so it appears under the same name in the Douay-Rheims, the Vulgate and the King James Bible. In the Hebrew Bible the twelve minor prophets, called "minor" only for their brevity, form a single book, with Amos third, the order the Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims keep. Its Latin is St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew, explained in our article on the Latin Vulgate Bible, and its English that of the Douay-Rheims Bible.

In the 1962 Roman Missal, the first lesson of Ember Wednesday in September is Amos 9:13–15: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper," a prophecy of harvest at the Embertide of the vintage. In the Roman Breviary the twelve minor prophets are read in November, after Ezechiel and Daniel, as the year turns towards the Last Judgment; the day's Office is in our Roman Breviary, and the Ember Days are marked in the liturgical calendar.

How to read the Book of Amos

Read it first in one sitting: nine chapters take less than half an hour. Follow the patterns that carry the meaning: "for three crimes, and for four" in chapters 1 and 2, "yet you returned not to me" in chapter 4, and the five visions from chapter 7. Then read Osee, who speaks to the same kingdom of the same sins in the language of a betrayed love, and end with Acts 15 to see the promise of chapter 9 fulfilled.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Amos?

The prophet Amos, a herdsman and dresser of sycamore figs from Thecua (Tekoa) in Juda, wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The book names him in its first verse, and the Church has always received it as his.

When was the Book of Amos written?

In the middle of the eighth century before Christ, under Ozias king of Juda and Jeroboam II king of Israel (about 781–741 BC), "two years before the earthquake." That is some decades before the fall of Samaria in 722 BC.

What is the Book of Amos about?

It is about God's judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel for injustice to the poor, corruption, luxury and idolatrous worship at Bethel. After oracles against the nations, discourses against Israel and five visions, it ends with the promise that God will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, which St James applied to the calling of the Gentiles (Acts 15).

What is the main message of the Book of Amos?

That the Lord is the just Judge of all nations, and that Israel's election makes its sins graver, not lighter: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities" (3:2). Worship without justice and repentance does not please God: "Seek ye the Lord, and live" (5:6).

How many chapters are in the Book of Amos?

The Book of Amos has 9 chapters, in the Douay-Rheims and the Vulgate as in the King James and modern Bibles. You can read each one, Latin and English side by side, starting from Amos chapter 1.

Where is the Book of Amos in the Bible?

In the Old Testament, third of the twelve minor prophets, after Joel and before Abdias (Obadiah). It is in every Bible, Catholic and Protestant, including the King James Version.

Who was Amaziah in the Book of Amos?

Amaziah, called Amasias in the Douay-Rheims, was the priest of the royal sanctuary of Bethel under Jeroboam II. He accused Amos of conspiracy and ordered him to prophesy no more at Bethel, "because it is the king's sanctuary" (7:13); Amos foretold the ruin of his house (Amos 7).

What is the literary style of the Book of Amos?

Vivid poetic oracles, full of images from shepherd life and the countryside, built on repeated formulas ("for three crimes, and for four"), refrains, rhetorical questions, woes, visions and short hymns to the Creator.

How does the Book of Amos end?

With hope. God promises to raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, to give a harvest so rich that "the ploughman shall overtake the reaper," and to plant His people in their land never to be plucked out again (9:11–15).

Read the whole Book of Amos verse by verse, in Latin and English, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) and Latin Vulgate: Amos; 1 Kings 15; 3 Kings 12; 4 Kings 14; Zacharias 14; Acts 7 and 15. St Jerome, Letter 53, to Paulinus. St Irenaeus, Against Heresies IV, 33. St Augustine, The City of God XVIII, 27–28. Council of Trent, Session IV (1546). Catechism of St Pius X, on the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. Bishop Challoner's notes to the Douay-Rheims. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Amos" and "Breviary." Roman Martyrology, 31 March. Missale Romanum and Breviarium Romanum (1962).