Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

AMOS (Person)

Hebrew prophet of the eighth century BC. Nothing is known about Amos apart from the book that bears his name. He was a shepherd living in Tekoa, a village about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Jerusalem, when God spoke to him in a vision (Am 1:1-2). The kingdom was then divided, with Uzziah king of Judah in the south and Jeroboam II king of Israel in the north. In Amos’s vision, the Lord was like a lion roaring out judgment on injustice and idolatry, especially among God’s own people. The short biographical section of his writings shows Amos preaching only at Bethel, in Israel, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Jerusalem and just over the border. Bethel had been made the royal religious sanctuary of Israel by Jeroboam I to rival Jerusalem in Judah. Amos prophesied that Israel would be overrun and its king killed. The priest of Bethel, Amaziah, called Amos a traitor and told him to go back to Judah and do his prophesying there. Amos replied, “I’m not one of your professional prophets. I certainly never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of fig trees.” But the Lord told him, “Go and prophesy to my people in Israel” (Am 7:10-15, NLT). Amos was evidently a God-fearing man who deeply felt the mistreatment of the poor by the privileged classes. He did not want to be identified with an elite group of professional prophets, who may have lost their original fervor. His writings reflect the earthy background of a shepherd (3:12). But he spoke with authority the message given him by the Lord God of Hosts: “I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry” (5:24, NLT). The message of Amos was a call to repentance of personal and social sins and a return to the worship of the one true God and to the covenantal standards that made the Jewish people a nation. See Amos, Book of; Prophet, Prophetess.