Amos begins his prophecies by an attack on several nations that are neighbours with both Israel and Judah (Amos 1:1-2:6). YHWH is god of all people and will therefore exercise his authority to administer divine judgment and punishment upon both the Israelite states and their heathen counterparts for various wrongs they have committed. Amos 9:7 suggests there is nothing special about the Israelites. They are just like the Ethiopians to YHWH and certainly no different from the Philistines or the Syrians. YHWH called the Philistines from Caphtor, the Syrians from Kir, just a He emancipated the Israelites from Egypt. Thus, Israel has failed to see the hand, authority, and activity of YHWH in the overall unfolding of general human history because of their concentration on what He had done for themselves, as a people. They thought this was exclusively confined to a specific point in their own history and could not have occurred to anybody else, anywhere else, at the hand of this one true God.

The emphasis on the special place of God in their liberation history cultivated the idea of Israel being the chosen nation of YHWH. This in turn led to general religious complacency and laxity, and even bred arrogance, especially among Israel's political leaders. Yet according to God a unique status entails obligations and responsibilities (Amos 3:1-2) 1. whom more is given, more is also required.

In Amos 1 and the initial verses of chapter 2, Israel's neighbors are criticized, and will receive divine punishment for mainly unsocial behaviors. That is also the same issue that Israel is criticized for starting at Amos 2:6-7, when the prophet turns his attention to the Israel proper. For Israel this is worse because it is something they well know of, from the traditions passed on to them by their fathers since Moses. The God of their father is a righteous God and likewise demands righteousness from His adherents, as can be seen from Moses' Ten Commandments in particular and from the rest of the books of the law in general. In a way, these can no longer be classified as adherents or followers of their own social and religious precepts. They abuse and oppress the poor (Amos 2:6-8) and keep overnight clothes taken in pledge, thus deliberately breaching the prohibitions of their law in Exodus 23:6-8 and 22:26-28.

The rulers are committed to greed. They fill up their palaces with items obtained by violence and extortion. "They know not how to do right" (Amos 3:10). In Amos 6:12, they have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock". The people are obsessed with the commercial and financial rewards of deceitful trade deals so much so that they can't even wait for religious observances, like the Sabbath, to come to their properly appointed end. They are in a hurry to sell the refuse of the wheat at exorbitant prices, measured with weight scales and balances that have been tampered with, or falsified, and otherwise manipulated (see Amos 8:5-6 versus Leviticus 19:13 and 19:35-36).

Israel's religious shrines at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beer-sheba are centres of evil and transgression (Amos 4:4-5). They pay tithes and offer daily sacrifices just to show off. They offer thanksgiving sacrifices with leavened stuff, which is against the law of Moses (Leviticus 2). In Amos 2:7. a man and his son mate with the same woman, cases of Israelites participating in Canaanite ritual prostitution in reverence to the Canaanite god, Baal.

There was nothing wrong in locating religious activity at places like Bethel and Gilgal. Israel's history shows religious experiences comprised of, among others, Jacob's dream in Genesis 28, at the then Luz, named Bethel by Jacob himself. One of the first centres where Israel offered sacrifice to their God, after entering Canaan, under Joshua, is Gilgal. The ark of the Lord was stationed there for quite some time during the time Joshua was at the helm. What was wrong in the time of Amos was the kind of religion that was being observed, and not necessarily the place where this was being done.

Israel worships deities such as Moloch and Chiun, celestial bodies as well as other manmade idols (5:26). Nazarite figures that have arisen within the nation have been forced to breach the requirements of their vows by being made to take wine. Prophets are ordered not to prophesy (Amos 2:11-12). God abhors this arrogance of Jacob, or Israel (Amos 6:8, 8:7).

The first part of the book of Amos opens up with a series of judgmental oracles against various nations including Israel and Judah. Yahweh has sent his anger against various foreign peoples. Specifically the crime of all these nations is human abuse. (Amos 1:3-4:3).

The nations have violently abused human beings as follows:

1)Damascus threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.

2)Tyre failed to remember the covenant of brotherhood and delivered a whole of people to Edom.

3)Edom pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity.

4)Ammon ripped the tummies of pregnant women in Gilead.

5)Moab burned to ashes the corpse of the King of Edom.

6)Israel’s offense is expounded extensively as oppression of the poor and their enslavement. They sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes. Such social abuses are violations against Yahweh for they profane his holy name and his altars and desecrate his sacred house. Further more, although Yahweh has graciously delivered Israel from Egypt, the Israelites have disobeyed him because they have oppressed the poor, profaned Yahweh’s name, abused his Nazirites and silenced his prophets. So Yahweh will punish the nation by military defeat.

The accusations of oppression are extended to the women of Samaria (Amos 4). Specifically this refers to the wives of the rulers and the top class. The women urge their husbands to exploit the poor at the market places and to charge bribes and bring the proceeds home. From eating such proceeds these women have grown fat and stout to fit the image of the fat beasts that were reared in the fertile district of Bashan: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who oppress the poor, who crush the needy who say to their husbands “bring that we may drink”.

Corruption is rampant in the national courts. Judges accept bribes and prejudice the poor in the courts. The rulers have turned justice into wormwood and cast down all righteousness (5:7). False scales are used at the market places to cheat the poor. The super profits obtained from this robbery is used to sponsor a luxurious life at the expense of the poor , “…….. You trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone…….. you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe”. (5:11-12). In all sectors of life (political, economic and social) there is gross injustice in Israel.

This is an idea that just emerges at this point in Amos' prophecies. The reader is not in possession of some information that shows that the concept existed among the people. It is also not clear whether this was a perception that was popular with the ordinary citizens only, with the ruling classes or with both. It may be the case that elements of both classes saw the prevailing culture of wrongdoing and dealt with frustrations on the national situation by looking ahead to a time in the future when God would right the condition for the benefit of the powerless and disadvantaged who were being exploited now.

Amos 5:18 attacks those who are looking forward to the day of the Lord. It will be of no use to them and will not benefit them in any way. It will be a day of darkness and not light. Israel's religious music shall be turned into wailing because there will be many deaths on this day (Amos 8:3, 8:9-11). Religious festivals will be turned into funeral gatherings, Great pain and mourning shall be upon the people.

Amos sees five visions in which God indicates to him that, by her transgressions, Israel is now set for divine judgment and punishment. In the vision of locusts and the vision of drought upon the carth, (7:1-6), Amos intercedes for Israel and God understands and repents of His actions. In the vision of the plumb line, Israel has been measured up and found to be rather crooked. God will overthrow her institutions and practices (Amos 7:7-9).

In Amos 8:1-2, Israel is like a basket of summer fruit which is ripe and ready to be sold off. YHWH will not reverse His decision. Israel will have her judgment. In the vision of the Lord standing by the altar in Amos 9:1, Israel will meet a violent end by the sword. Even if they try to go up to heaven or descend into hell, the Lord will retrieve them. If they go into the sea, God will direct leviathan, the scamonster, to destroy them. If they are taken into exile, God will ensure that they are slain with the sword.

In Amos 4, God has withheld His rains or caused them to fall erratically in Israel. He has sent pests to consume their crops. There has been scarcity of food. Some of them have even been slain by the sword. Yet Israel has not been bothered. She has remained resolure in sin. Therefore, as already stated in Amos 2:6, for her repeated or persistent transgression, God will now not revoke the punishment.

Israel's rulers sleep upon and relax in the solace of their ivory couches. They feed themselves on meat from the young of their livestock. They apply expensive perfumes to their own bodies. They make and play, for themselves, musical instruments like King David, and sing along to the sound of those musical instruments. But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph" (Amos 6:6). They are not worried or concerned about the need for justice for the ordinary citizens, facing social and other difficulties, among them.

They shall therefore be delivered into captivity or exile, at the first available instance, because they disregard the need for social justice and pervert the worship of YHWH in order to attend to the demands of their personal comfort and enjoyment. They engage in excessive religious superficiality, artificialism, and idolatry (Amos 6:7, 4:4-5). The dynasty of Jehu, now under king Jeroboam II, will be brought to a violent end (Amos 7:9), In Amos 5:5, 5:27, and 7:17, Israel shall surely be taken into exile. "The virgin of Israel is fallen, no more to rise" (Amos 5:2), and "they shall be led away on hooks and their posterity on fish-hooks" (Amos 4:2).

The only possible leeway for Israel is to turn to their God: "Seek the Lord and you shall live" (Amos 5:0): "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live" (Amos 5:14–16). If they opt for good and administer justice in the land, God might be gracious upon the house of Joseph, that is, Israel.

The prophecies of Amos end on a positive note, beginning with the second half of 9:8, where there is a clear toning down of the mood from that which has been prevalent since the start of that chapter. The first half of verse 8 refers to the total obliteration of the sinful nation from the face of the earth. The other half declares that Jacob will not be completely wiped out, however. In verse 9, the Lord will purge and cleanse his people, as with a sieve, so that, according to verse 10, the sinful and arrogant of the Israelites will die by the sword in exile. From verse 11, reference is made to the raising of the booth (house)

of David, which is fallen. Questions have been posed as to why this is so, considering the fact that he was prophesying in the northern kingdom, where David's dynasty was not the ruling class. This point and the general turnaround in the harsh tone of Amos's prophecies, in the concluding verses, has led Old Testament scholars to see a possible origin of this section from a time which is later than that of the Amos of the eighth century. One can also recall, however, that reference to Judah has already been made along with other neighbours of Israel in chapters 1, 2 and 7, In Amos 1:2, the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. Again there is mention of Zion at the start of chapter 6.

The booth of David could be a time like that of David's where Israel had lived in peace after the subjugation of her enemies by King David. In other words, the good times will be back and Israel will live in peace again, as in the times of the rule of David.

Prophets generally considered the northern kingdom to be part of the greater Israel, as it was before the division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon. Even Ahijah, the prophet who announced the pending splitting of the nation, had a perception of Jerusalem as YHWH's chosen city, and the house of David as occupying a special position in God's scheme of things for Israel Kings 11). This means there might be nothing out of line with these verses.

The final verses, 12-15. look forward to a future time when God will reverse the captivity and exile, and make a remnant of Israel settle in their Lands and rebuild cities they once inhabited. They will not be displaced again. Conditions will improve then so that there will be plenty of food, so much so that even the reaping of previous, or preceding, season's bumper harvests will overlap into the onset of the next ploughing and sowing phases.

• Amos’ contemporaries were the Israelites of the northern state. Amos announced further judgement against them in more severe terms, accompanied by mockery of their privileges and luxuries, even their religious ceremonies are sarcastically denounced. Israel is charged of misdeeds and threatened with judgement. Israel is called to hear the word of her own destruction, “Hear this word; You only have I known… Therefore I will punish you…” (Amos 3:2).

• Amos avers that election is no guarantee of God’s favour; It involves, rather, a demanding responsibility and serves as the basis for divine judgement and punishment. This view of Amos would run contrary to Israelite conception. Amos’ proclamation on the threat to human life in Israel, which he portrayed by the imagery of a trumpet, “If a trumpet is blown in a city does not the people tremble”? This involves the audience personally and threatens their survival. Such a proclamation would be met by an emotional reaction because the people least expected any reprisals from their God.

• The imageries in Amos 3:12 further depict events contrary to Israelite conception. Amos employs two imageries: i)- The shepherd who rescues nothing but torn animal parts from the lion and ii)- the recovery of nothing but furniture fragments from the enemy. Not only will the strongholds of the capital be brought low, nothing but the fragments of the furnishings will be left. Still the other image of a lion having devoured its prey (3:12) connects animal violence to military defeat of Israel. Moreover, the roaring of the lion is said to be God’s voice, so the lion’s attack; the blowing of the trumpet in the city, the activity of witnesses in Yahweh`s trial against Samaria, and the enemy’s destruction of the mighty strongholds of Samaria and the decimation of the furnishings are all images that work together to depict the total annihilation of the city.

• In Amos 3:13-15 he extends the portrayal of devastation. Witnesses are summoned to witness that the sanctuary at Bethel and the altar will be punished and that Yahweh will destroy the houses. The worshippers are sarcastically summoned to Bethel to come and multiply transgression, “Come to Bethel And transgress, to Gilgal and multiply transgression”. (Amos 4:4)

• Such sarcasm would be an insult of the holy religion. The Israelites would least expect such messages from a true prophet. The proclamation of the death of King Jeroboam 11 marked the climax. He was instantly served with a P.I. order by the high priest Amaziah. Amos` contemporaries would not expect to hear disfavor or any bad messages that suggested God taking punitive measures against them.