Amos 1:1

1. Title. Each prophetic book has a title, sometimes brief (Obadiah 1:1), sometimes running through several verses (Jeremiah 1:1 ff.). This title indicates the name, home, occupation, and approximate date of the author, and the nation in whose interest he prophesied.

Words of Amos Of the other prophetic books only Jeremiah contains a similar expression, “words of Jeremiah,” that is, the prophecies are assigned primarily to their human author; everywhere else it is stated or implied that the primary author is God: “The word of Jehovah” (Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1, etc.); “The vision of Isaiah” (Amos 1:1; compare Obadiah 1:1; Nahum 1:1), granted by Jehovah; “The burden” (Habakkuk 1:1, compare Nahum 1:1; Malachi 1:1), imposed by Jehovah. It does not follow, however, that the utterances of Amos and Jeremiah are less divine than those of the other prophets (compare Jeremiah 1:2, “to whom the word of Jehovah came”; Amos 1:1, “which he saw”; Amos 1:3, “Thus saith Jehovah,” compare Amos 7:14). A rabbinical tradition says that the peculiarity is due to and is a rebuke of the fault-finding spirit of Amos and Jeremiah.

Herdmen Literally, nakad-keepers (see p. 192).

Tekoa See p. 191.

Israel The northern kingdom, to which Amos was sent (Amos 7:15).

He saw See on Habakkuk 1:1. On the chronological data see pp. 195f. The relative clause “who was among the herdmen (of Tekoa)” is thought by some to be a later, though historically reliable, addition.