The Book of Amos, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Amos chapter by chapter. In our Joel study we heard the LORD roar out of Zion. Amos starts with the same roar. “The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem” (1:2). We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Amos was not a professional preacher. He was a farmer. A shepherd and a fig picker from a small town in Judah. And God sent him north to Israel. To Bethel. To the king’s own church. Israel was rich. They had summer houses and winter houses. Beds of ivory. The best wine. And they went to church. They gave their tithes. They sang their songs. But they were crushing the poor. Selling people for a pair of shoes. And God said “I hate, I despise your feast days” (5:21).

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Amos is about God’s judgment on sin. Not just the sins of the nations. The sins of God’s own people. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (3:2). Amos is about the one God whose name is the LORD. “The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name” (4:13). And Amos points to Jesus Christ. The one who would raise up the tabernacle of David. And call his name upon the Gentiles (9:11–12). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“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” (1:1). Tekoa was a small town about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. Amos preached around 760 BC.¹ We met Jeroboam II in our 2 Kings study. He made Israel big and rich again. The earthquake was so bad that people still talked about it 250 years later (Zechariah 14:5). The name Amos means burden or burden bearer.

Amos told the priest of Bethel how he got his job. “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock” (7:14–15). He was not trained in the schools of the prophets. God just called him. That is how God works. He called fishermen to be apostles.

The book has three parts. Chapters 1–2 are judgments on 8 nations. Ending with Israel. Chapters 3–6 are sermons against Israel. And chapters 7–9 are 5 visions. Then a promise at the very end. Notice one more thing. 3 times Amos breaks out in a short hymn about God’s power. And each one ends with the same words. “The LORD is his name” (4:13; 5:8; 9:6).² We will break the book down by chapter. Then we will put together what Amos teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

The Nations Around Israel

Amos starts with Israel’s enemies. Each one begins the same way. “For three transgressions of … and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof” (1:3). 3 and then 4. That means sin on top of sin until the cup is full.³ Then God names one sin as an example.

Damascus. They threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron (1:3). They ran over people like grain. Gaza. They carried away a whole captivity and sold them to Edom (1:6). Slave trading. Tyre. They sold people too. “And remembered not the brotherly covenant” (1:9). Edom. “He did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity” (1:11). Edom came from Esau. Israel came from Jacob. They were brothers. Ammon. “They have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border” (1:13). Moab. They burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime (2:1). They would not even let the dead rest.

Imagine the people of Israel listening. Every time Amos named an enemy they would say amen. Get them God. And notice something. These nations did not have the law of Moses. But God still judged them. For cruelty. For slavery. For murder. For breaking their word. God holds every nation to what they know is right. Paul says the Gentiles “shew the work of the law written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15).

Judah and Israel

Then Amos came closer. Judah. Israel’s sister to the south. “Because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments” (2:4). Judah had the law and rejected it. The people of Israel would still be saying amen. Then Amos turned around and pointed at them.

The circle closed. 7 nations. Then the 8th one was them. And Israel got the longest list. They sold a righteous man into slavery for a little silver. They sold a poor man because he owed them for a pair of shoes. They wanted even the dirt on the poor man’s head. Father and son went in to the same girl. They took the clothes the poor gave them as a pledge and slept on them by the altar (2:8). The law said to give a poor man’s coat back before night so he could sleep in it (Exodus 22:26–27).

Then God reminds them what he did for them. He destroyed the Amorite who was as tall as the cedars (2:9). He brought them out of Egypt and led them 40 years in the wilderness (2:10). He raised up prophets and Nazarites. “But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not” (2:12). We saw in our Numbers study that a Nazarite vowed not to drink wine. They made the holy ones break their vows. And told the preachers to be quiet. “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves” (2:13). God said your sin is crushing me like an overloaded cart. And no one would escape. Not the fast runner. Not the strong man. Not the man on a horse (2:14–16).

Israel thought being chosen meant they were safe. Amos said being chosen means you are more accountable. Not less. Known here means the close knowing of a covenant. Like a husband and wife. Jesus said “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48).

Then Amos asks a string of questions. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (v.3). A lion does not roar unless it has prey (v.4). A bird does not fall in a trap unless there is a trap (v.5). Every effect has a cause. “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (v.6). The word evil here means disaster. Not sin. God was behind the trouble coming on them. Then this.

God does not do things in secret without warning. He tells his prophets first. And when God speaks the prophet has to speak. Just like Jeremiah said the word was like a fire shut up in his bones. We saw that in our Jeremiah study. Amos could not keep quiet.

God called the Philistines and the Egyptians to come and look at the mess in Samaria (v.9). “For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces” (v.10). Then a sad picture. A shepherd who finds what is left after a lion attacks. 2 legs or a piece of an ear (v.12). That is all that would be left of Israel. Just enough to prove it was there. God would smash their altars at Bethel. And “I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish” (v.15). Archaeologists have found carved ivory in the ruins of Samaria.⁴ Just like Amos said.

“Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink” (v.1). Bashan was known for fat cows. Amos called the rich women of Samaria fat cows. They told their husbands bring me another drink. While the poor were crushed to pay for it. God said they would be dragged out with hooks (v.2).

Then Amos mocks their religion. “Come to Bethel, and transgress” (v.4). Go to church and sin. Bring your sacrifices every morning and bring your tithes. “For this liketh you” (v.5). They loved it. They loved going to church. But it was all for show.

Yet Have Ye Not Returned Unto Me

Then God lists 5 things he did to get their attention. Famine. He gave them “cleanness of teeth” (v.6). Nothing to eat. Drought. He held back the rain and made it rain on one city and not another (vv.7–8). Mildew and locusts on the crops (v.9). Plague and war (v.10). And disaster “as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning” (v.11). After each one God says the same thing. “Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD” (vv.6, 8, 9, 10, 11). 5 times. God was not trying to destroy them. He was trying to bring them back. And they would not come.

Notice verse 11. God says “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom.” Trinitarians will say God speaking about God shows two persons.⁵ But notice. This is how Hebrew talks. The speaker names himself. We covered the same thing with Hosea 1:7 in our Hosea study. It is the one God talking about what he himself did.

Prepare to meet thy God. That was a warning of judgment. They would meet him. Not at church. In judgment. And every one of us will meet him too. Paul says “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Jesus said “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). The God we must prepare to meet is the one who will judge us. And the one who will judge us is Jesus Christ.

Notice who this God is. He forms the mountains. He creates the wind. “He declareth unto man what is his thought.” He knows what you are thinking. Jesus knew what men were thinking. “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4). “He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). “The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.” This is the first of the 3 hymns.

Seek Ye Me, and Ye Shall Live

Amos sings a funeral song for Israel while it was still alive. “The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise” (v.2). A city that sent out 1000 men would have 100 left (v.3). Then God says “Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal” (vv.4–5). Not the shrine. Me. “Seek the LORD, and ye shall live” (v.6). Then the second hymn.

He made the stars. The 7 stars are a cluster called the Pleiades. Job talks about them too (Job 9:9). And notice. He “turneth the shadow of death into the morning.” He turns death into morning. That is what happened on the first day of the week “very early in the morning” when the women came to the tomb (Mark 16:2). And it was empty. The LORD is his name.

Then Amos goes back to the sin. “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly” (v.10). The gate was where court was held. They hated honest judges. “Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor … ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them” (v.11). “They afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right” (v.12).

“Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate” (vv.14–15). They said God is with us. Amos said he will be if you seek good. It is not enough to say it.

Woe Unto You That Desire the Day of the LORD

“Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light” (v.18). They wanted the day of the LORD. They thought it meant God would come and beat their enemies. Amos said you are the enemy. It will be like a man who runs from a lion and meets a bear. He gets home and leans on the wall and a snake bites him (v.19). No escape.

Hard words. God hated their church services. Their offerings. Their music. He called their songs noise. Because their lives did not match their worship. They sang on the Sabbath and cheated the poor on Monday. God wanted justice to flow like a river. Not a trickle. A mighty stream that never dries up. Worship without obedience is just noise. We saw the same thing in Isaiah 1 and Hosea 6:6.

Then God asked if they offered sacrifices to him in the wilderness for 40 years. They had carried their idols the whole time. “Ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god” (v.26). So God would send them into captivity beyond Damascus (v.27). Stephen quoted these verses right before they stoned him (Acts 7:42–43). He was saying Israel always had idols mixed in with their worship.

At ease. Comfortable. Relaxed. They thought nothing could happen to them. Notice it says Zion too. Judah was just as comfortable. Then Amos describes them. They lay on beds of ivory. They stretched out on their couches. They ate the best lambs and calves (v.4). “That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David” (v.5). They drank wine by the bowl. Not the cup. They used the best lotions (v.6). And here is the problem. “But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (v.6).

Joseph means the nation. It was falling apart. And they did not care. As long as they were comfortable. That is the sin of the comfortable church. Not that they had nice things. That they did not care. Jesus told the church at Laodicea “thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). So God said they would be the first to go into captivity (v.7). The party would be over.

“Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock” (v.12). Turning justice into poison is as crazy as running horses on a cliff. “Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought” (v.13). They bragged about winning little battles. And God was raising up a nation against them (v.14). That was Assyria.

Three Visions

Now the visions. In the first God was making locusts to eat the crops. Amos prayed. “O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD” (vv.2–3). In the second God called for fire that would dry up the sea and eat up the land. Amos prayed again. “O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee” (v.5). And again God said it shall not be (v.6). Notice. The prayer of one man stopped judgment. Twice. That is the power of an intercessor. We saw the same with Moses in our Exodus study.

Then the third vision. “Behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand” (v.7). A plumbline is a string with a weight on the end. Builders use it to see if a wall is straight. “Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more” (v.8). God measured Israel by his standard. And the wall was crooked. It had to come down. This time Amos did not pray. There was nothing to say. God’s word is the plumbline. Not our feelings. Not what everyone else is doing.

Amaziah the Priest of Bethel

Then the story stops for a moment. Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to king Jeroboam. “Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words” (v.10). Then he told Amos to leave. “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court” (vv.12–13).

Notice what he called it. The king’s chapel. Not God’s house. The church at Bethel belonged to the king. We saw in our 1 Kings study that Jeroboam I set up the golden calf at Bethel so the people would not go to Jerusalem. It was a state church. And the priest worked for the king. Not for God. He told Amos go preach somewhere else. And go make your money there.

Amos answered. “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel” (vv.14–15). I do not do this for money. I am a farmer. God sent me. Then he gave Amaziah a word. His wife would become a harlot in the city. His children would die by the sword. His land would be divided. And he would die in a polluted land. And Israel would go into captivity (v.17). When a preacher tries to shut up the word of God it does not go well.

The fourth vision. A basket of summer fruit (v.1). Then God said “The end is come upon my people of Israel” (v.2). This is a play on words. The Hebrew for summer fruit is qayits. The word for end is qets.⁶ The fruit was ripe. So was Israel. Ripe for judgment.

Then Amos goes after the businessmen. “Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail” (v.4). They could not wait for the holy days to be over so they could get back to selling (v.5). They made the measure small and the price big. They used fake scales (v.5). “That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?” (v.6). They even sold the sweepings off the floor as grain. “The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works” (v.7).

“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day” (v.9). Some have seen in this verse the darkness at the cross. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45). The sixth hour was noon. And the next verse says “I will make it as the mourning of an only son” (v.10).⁷ We will not be dogmatic. But it is a striking picture. Darkness at noon. And mourning for an only son.

This is the worst judgment in the book. Not a famine of bread. A famine of the word of God. They told the prophets prophesy not (2:12). They told Amos go away (7:12). So God would give them what they asked for. Silence. And one day they would want a word from God so bad they would run from sea to sea looking for it. And not find it. Do not take the word of God for granted. When God stops speaking it is too late.

I Saw the Lord Standing Upon the Altar

The fifth vision. “I saw the Lord standing upon the altar” (v.1). Probably the altar at Bethel. God told him to smash the tops of the pillars so the building would come down on the people. There was no place to hide. “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down” (v.2). The top of Carmel. The bottom of the sea. Captivity. God would find them (vv.3–4). We saw the same thing in Psalm 139. Only here it is judgment. Then the third hymn. He touches the land and it melts. He builds his stories in the heaven. He calls for the waters of the sea. “The LORD is his name” (vv.5–6).

“Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?” (v.7). Israel thought the exodus made them untouchable. God said I move other nations too. Being chosen does not make you better. It makes you responsible. Then “I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (v.9). The chaff would go. But not one real grain would be lost. Jesus told Peter “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31–32).

Upon Whom My Name Is Called

Then after 9 chapters of judgment the book turns. In the last 5 verses.

The tabernacle of David means the house of David. His family. His kingdom. It had fallen like a broken down hut. God said I will raise it up. We saw in our 1 Chronicles study that many have pointed out this verse when talking about the tabernacle David set up for the ark. Now look at how the New Testament uses it.

At the council in Jerusalem the church had to decide what to do with the Gentiles who were being saved. The question was whether they had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Peter told how God gave the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius just like he did to the Jews. Then James stood up. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14). Then he quoted Amos 9. “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down … That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things” (Acts 15:16–17).⁸

There are three things we want to point out. First James said the tabernacle of David was being rebuilt right then. In the church. Jesus is the son of David. And his kingdom was going up. Second the Gentiles would come in. Not as Jews. As Gentiles. All the heathen. Third notice how they come in. “Upon whom my name is called.” A people for his name. God’s name would be called over them. That is exactly what happened at the house of Cornelius. “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord” (Acts 10:48). The name called over the Gentiles at baptism was the name of Jesus. James wrote later about “that worthy name by the which ye are called” (James 2:7). The name of the LORD in Amos 9:12 is the name of Jesus Christ.

Then the book ends with plenty. “The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine” (v.13). The harvest would be so big they would still be bringing it in when it was time to plant again. Joel said the same thing about the mountains dropping new wine (Joel 3:18). “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God” (v.15).

Amos does not argue about how many gods there are. He just shows one God ruling over everything. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First the one God rules all nations. He judged Damascus and Gaza and Tyre and Edom and Ammon and Moab. Not just Israel. He brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir (9:7). He makes the mountains and the wind and the stars (4:13; 5:8). And 3 times Amos says the same thing. “The LORD is his name” (4:13; 5:8; 9:6). One God. One name. Even when God talks about himself in the third person it is the same God (4:11).

Second we must prepare to meet him. “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” (4:12). This God knows our thoughts (4:13). He sees our feasts and our scales. He measures us with a plumbline (7:8). And the New Testament tells us who we will meet. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). The God who declares unto man what is his thought is Jesus who knew what was in man (John 2:25).

Third the name of the LORD is called on his people. Amos said God would raise up the tabernacle of David and call his name upon all the heathen (9:11–12). James said that was happening in the church. A people for his name (Acts 15:14). And the name called over them in baptism was the name of Jesus (Acts 10:48). The God whose name is the LORD made his name known in Jesus Christ. One God. One name. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Amos chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Amos is about God’s judgment on sin. The nations were judged for cruelty and slavery. Judah for despising the law. And Israel most of all. Because they were chosen. They sold the poor for a pair of shoes. They lay on ivory beds and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. They went to church and cheated on Monday. And God said I hate your feast days. Let judgment run down as waters.

Second Amos is about the one God whose name is the LORD. He formed the mountains and made the stars. He sent famine and drought and plague. And 5 times he said yet have ye not returned unto me. He measured them with a plumbline. And when they would not hear his word he sent a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Prepare to meet thy God.

Third Amos points to Jesus Christ. The God who knows our thoughts. The one we will all stand before in judgment. The one who turns the shadow of death into the morning. And the son of David whose fallen tabernacle God raised up in the church. So that all the Gentiles might seek after the Lord and have his name called upon them. That name is Jesus.

In the last chapter Amos named Edom among the nations that would be called by God’s name (9:12). Edom was Israel’s brother who pursued him with the sword (1:11). The next prophet wrote the shortest book in the Old Testament. Only 21 verses. All of it about Edom. That is where Obadiah begins.