Amos 1:1-15

1:1-3 | Being from the southern kingdom of Judah made Amos a suspicious outsider according to his listeners from the northing kingdom (Israel). So he establishes his credentials by declaring that he speaks by God’s authority (Thus says the LORD). The reference to the earthquake two years later would also validate Amos’ message, for he predicted this event (8:8; 9:1-5).

1:1 | Jeroboam I, the first king of the northern kingdom (Israel) after the division of the nation in 931 BC, made the city of Bethel a center for pagan worship – a rejection of God in the most fundamental sense.

1:2 | That the Lord roars like a mighty lion (3:8) and the lush mountain range of Carmel withers puts the Israelites on notice: divine judgment is coming. The withering of vegetation was one of the “curses” in the Mosaic Covenant (Deut. 28:23-24).

1:3-4 | The destruction of Damascus, the capital of Syria, would have been welcome news to the Israelites, especially those living in the region of Gilead, who had been sorely oppressed by the Syrians. Hazael and Ben-Hadad were kings of Syria. Threshing is a metaphor for cruelty and violence: grain was threshed by dragging a wooden board with sharp nails over the grain to separate it from its husks.

1:4-5 | Fire – the ancient world’s most destructive force – is the instrument of God’s judgment in each of the first seven oracles. Breaking the bar of the city gate represented not just loss of security but invasion and destruction.

1:6-9 | Gaza was one of five major Philistine cities. Captives were usually acquired as slaves after a victory in battle, but it is unknown which captivity is referenced here. Tyre was an ally of Israel, but its people had ignored a covenant of brotherhood and delivered the Iraelites to Edom, just as Gaza had done.

1:11 | The Edomites, descendants of Esau, had a history of intermittent conflict with Israel (Num. 20:14-21; Judg. 11:17; 1 Sam. 14:47; Jer. 49:20-22).

1:13-14 | The Ammonites killed pregnant Israelite women to keep the population under control in hopes of conquering the Israelite region of Gilead. Rabbah was their capital city.