When Amos prophesied the overthrow of the sanctuary, the fall of the royal house, and the captivity of the people, it was more than Israelite officialdom could bear. Israel could indeed expect the day of the Lord, but it would be a day of darkness and not light ( 5:18). The prophecy begins with a sweeping indictment of Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, and Edom but the forthright herdsman saves his climactic denunciation for Israel, whose injustice and idolatry are sins against the light granted to her. The book is an anthology of his oracles and was compiled either by the prophet or by some of his disciples. The poetry of Amos, who denounces the hollow prosperity of the Northern Kingdom, is filled with imagery and language taken from his own pastoral background. He prophesied in Israel at the great cult center of Bethel, from which he was finally expelled by the priest in charge of this royal sanctuary ( 7:10– 17). Amos was a sheepbreeder of Tekoa in Judah, who delivered his oracles in the Northern Kingdom during the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 B.C.).
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