Verse 1 :
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, :
which he saw concerning Israel ::
in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, ::
and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, :
two years before the earthquake. • "The words": the same phrase is used in the beginning of the
Book of Jeremiah (
Jeremiah 1:1), and
Ecclesiastes (
Ecclesiastes 1:1). According to the
Pulpit Commentary, the "words" are not of Amos, but of God or
Jehovah, as shown by the succeeding clause, "which he saw". • "Amos" (meaning in Hebrew "a burden") was a shepherd of
Tekoa, a small town of Judah, a region more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. Amos therefore owned and tended flocks, and collected sycamore figs. ) implies that Amos belongs to a "humble rank". • "Herdmen" (Hebrew:
noked): the same as found in , applied to Mesha, King of Moab, a great "sheepmaster": hence some have considered that Amos was not a mere mercenary, but a rich possessor of flocks. However () states that his position is of a "poor labouring man". • "Tekoa", a small town of Judah, six miles southeast from
Bethlehem, and twelve from Jerusalem, on the borders of the great desert (; compare ). The region being sandy was more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. it is nine miles distant, to the south of it; and, according to
Jerome, it was twelve miles from Jerusalem; although he says elsewhere, that "Thecua", or Tekoa, is a village at this day, nine miles from Aelia or Jerusalem, of which place was Amos the prophet, and where his sepulchre is seen: either there is a mistake of the number, or of Aelia for Bethlehem; the former rather seems to be the case; according to Josephus, it was not far from the castle of Herodium. • "Two years before the earthquake": which was well known in those times, and fresh in memory. Zechariah speaks of it many years after, mentioning that it was in the days of Uzziah,
Zechariah 14:5. The Jewish writers generally say that it was when Uzziah was smote with leprosy for invading the priest's office; and was in the year in which he died, when Isaiah had a vision of the glory of the Lord, and the posts of the house moved,
Isaiah 6:1; and with whom Josephus agrees; who also relates, that "the temple being rent by the earthquake, the bright light of the sun shone upon the king's face, and the leprosy immediately seized him; and, at a place before the city called Eroge, half part of a mountain towards the west was broken and rolled half a mile towards the eastern part, and there stood, and stopped up the ways, and the king's gardens"; but this cannot be true, as Theodoret observes; since, according to this account, Amos must begin to prophesy in the fiftieth year of Uzziah; for he reigned fifty two years, and he began his reign in the twenty seventh year of Jeroboam, ; who reigned forty one years, ; so that Uzziah and he were contemporary fourteen years only, and Jeroboam must have been dead thirty six years when it was the fiftieth of Uzziah; whereas they are here represented as contemporary when Amos began to prophesy, which was but two years before the earthquake; so that this earthquake must be in the former and not the latter part of Uzziah's reign, and consequently not when he was stricken with the leprosy. Cross reference:
Amos 7:4 and
Joel 3:16 ==Numerical proverbs==