Tyndale Open Study Notes

Verse 1

1:1 message (literally words): This standard way of introducing a prophetic message (Jer 1:1; see also Hag 1:12) emphasizes its form and content. • shepherd (Hebrew noqed): This word is used just one other time in the Old Testament, to describe the king of Moab as a “sheep breeder” (2 Kgs 3:4). Amos describes his vocation in Amos 7:14 using a different Hebrew word (boqer, which means “herder”; see Amos Book Introduction, “The Prophet Amos”). Amos was not a professional prophet serving the court or the Temple. • Amos received this message in visions—that is, by divine revelation (see Isa 1:1). • Amos depicts the earthquake that occurred during the reign of Uzziah (Zech 14:5) as an act of God’s judgment (Amos 3:14-15; 6:11, 14; 8:8; 9:1, 9). • Uzziah, also called Azariah (792–740 BC), was the most powerful king of Judah after the division of the kingdom. • Jeroboam II (793–753 BC), who descended from the dynasty of Jehu, took advantage of a power vacuum in the region and recovered territory earlier lost to the Arameans.

Verse 2

1:2 This message speaks of judgment at the day of the Lord. • Mount Zion (the Temple in Jerusalem) was the logical source of a message from the Lord. • Mount Carmel rises from the Mediterranean Sea and is well watered even in time of drought. If all the grass on Mount Carmel withered, it would be the sign of a catastrophic drought.

Verse 3

1:3–2:16 The eight judgments of this prophecy proceed from the most obvious enemy, Damascus, to the least obvious, Israel itself. The sequence would have engaged Israel’s attention as they heard God’s judgment against their enemies, but Amos eventually confronted the people with God’s judgment on them.

1:3-5 Damascus, the capital of Aram, was brutal in its treatment of the people of Gilead, Israel’s territory east of the Jordan. By the time Ahab died (853 BC), Damascus had captured Ramoth in Gilead (1 Kgs 22:3). Around 801 BC, Assyria captured Damascus, and the city never again held the power it had wielded in its prime.

1:3 have sinned again and again: Literally have committed three sins, even four. This expression is used for a repeated act of rebellion against the natural order established by God. The Hebrew phrase does not denote a strict count but a pattern of repeated violations. • beat down my people: Threshing grain involved separating the heads of the grain from their hulls by pulling wooden sledges with sharp teeth over the cut grain (Isa 41:15; see Mic 4:13). This description provides a graphic picture of the brutality of the people of Damascus.

Verse 4

1:4 I will send down fire: In ancient times conquered cities were burned by invading armies (see also 1:7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5). The conquest of Damascus would be God’s judgment on them. • Hazael reigned as king of Damascus (about 843–802 BC) after he seized the throne by assassination. Ben-hadad was Hazael’s son and successor (about 802–792 BC).

Verse 5

1:5 Aven and Beth-eden were both connected with Aram and Damascus. Aven (meaning evil, wickedness) refers to the valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains or the plain of Damascus. The city-state Beth-eden was north of Aram, elsewhere simply called Eden (2 Kgs 19:12; Ezek 27:23). • The Arameans originally came from Kir (Amos 9:7), probably in southern Babylonia; Kir was where Assyria deported them when Damascus fell (2 Kgs 16:9). Just as Egypt was a symbol of captivity for Israel (see Deut 28:68), Kir represented captivity for Aram.

Verse 6

1:6 The Philistine city of Gaza, on the seacoast at the southwest edge of Palestine, was the gateway for traffic between Africa and Asia. Its sin was slave trading; Philistia had raided Israel or Judah and sold whole villages into slavery to Edom.

Verse 7

1:7 I will send down fire: Uzziah conquered Philistia (2 Chr 26:6); in 701 BC, the Assyrian invasion all but ended the distinct identity of the Philistines.

Verse 8

1:8 The Philistine cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon were on or near the seacoast, while Ekron lay inland. Gath is not mentioned here, as it had been conquered earlier by Hazael (2 Kgs 12:17) and then Uzziah (2 Chr 26:6). • the few Philistines still left: The Philistines maintained their ethnic identity through the Assyrian period, but this distinction faded by the time of the Persians (Zech 9:5-7).

Verse 9

1:9 Tyre and Sidon were the principal seaports of Phoenicia. • Tyre’s crime, like Philistia’s (1:6-8), was selling whole villages of Israelite captives to the Edomites as slaves, a captivity made more bitter by a sense of betrayal (see 2 Sam 5:11; 1 Kgs 5:1, 11; 16:30-31). Tyre’s reputation was “anything is for sale”; Isaiah portrayed the city as a prostitute peddling her wares (Isa 23:15-17).

Verse 10

1:10 fire on the walls: The main part of Tyre was built on an island, making it almost impossible to capture (see Ezek 26:1–28:19).

Verse 11

1:11 Edom was another betrayer (see 1:9; Gen 36; see also Gen 25:23-30; 27:39-40). • The NLT adds the Israelites to make explicit what relatives (literally brother) means (see Gen 25:25-30). “Brothers” can also refer to parties to a treaty (see Amos 1:9). Apparently Edom exerted constant pressure on the borders of Israel and Judah, raiding and plundering at moments of weakness (Jer 49:7-22; Obad 1:1-9).

Verse 12

1:12 With the destruction of the major cities of Teman and Bozrah, Edom lost its capacity for continual warfare. Babylon destroyed Edom shortly after Judah in 553 BC (see Jer 27; 49:7-22; see also study note on Obad 1:18).

Verse 13

1:13 Israel regarded the people of Ammon as kin who also betrayed them. The Ammonites (like the Moabites, 2:1) were descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew (Gen 19:37-38). Ammon had been a constant threat to Gilead (see Judg 10:7-9). • In ancient times, conquering armies commonly ripped open pregnant women (2 Kgs 8:12; 15:16; Hos 13:16); they also raped the women and slaughtered the children of the towns they seized (Isa 13:16, 18; Lam 5:11; Hos 10:14; 13:16; Nah 3:10; Zech 14:2).

Verse 14

1:14 Rabbah was the chief city of the Ammonites (2 Sam 12:26). • Ammon (Amos 1:13) was crushed by the Assyrians in the 800s BC, then attacked and depopulated by the Babylonians in the 700s.

Verse 15

1:15 their king: The Hebrew term malkam may be a reference to the Ammonite god Molech. In ancient times, people believed that a conquered nation’s god or gods went into exile together with them (see 5:26-27; 1 Sam 5:1-2; Isa 46:1).