Amos 7 Footnotes

7:10-15 Amos, a native of Tekoa in Judah, was told to prophesy in the northern kingdom of Israel (v. 15) as well as in Judah. For this purpose he went to Bethel, one of the two sanctuaries set up by Jeroboam I as alternatives to Jerusalem when he led the northern tribes in revolt against Solomon’s successor Rehoboam (1Kg 12:26-30). Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, told him, “Go away, you seer!” (Am 7:12). A seer (Hb hozeh) was the earlier term for a prophet (1Sm 9:9), a sort of technical functionary who could solve problems such as locating a lost herd of donkeys (1Sm 9:3). To call a man who was the proclaimer of the Lord’s word a mere “seer” was to insult him. Amos’s words in reply, lo’ ’ani navi’, are usually rendered “I was not a prophet,” but they can also be translated as protest against Amaziah’s insult: “No! I am a prophet!” Amos’s following words, that he was not “the son of a prophet,” can also be understood to mean that, though he was a prophet, he was not a member of a guild or community of prophets. That is, he was not a “professional prophet” but one the Lord had specially called from another line of work as an herdsman and caretaker of sycamore figs (Am 7:14-15). Amaziah’s response to Amos further showed his disdain for the Lord, in that he referred to the sanctuary at Bethel as “the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple”—not a temple of the Lord.

7:17 After Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, acted to curtail Amos’s mission in Israel, Amos prophesied not only that Amaziah would die in exile but also that his sons and daughters would be killed and that his wife would become a “prostitute in the city.” Why would God punish the priest’s innocent wife and children when Amaziah was the guilty one? The prophets viewed the Assyrian advance into the region as the instrument of the Lord’s judgment upon Israel’s disobedience. That disobedience was evident not only in the social inequalities that had developed between rich and poor but also in the false religion that the nation tolerated. The temple at Bethel, like that of Dan, had been established as a rival to the Solomonic temple in Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah (1Kg 12:26-30). Amos, a Judean, viewed these sanctuaries as sites of false worship, together with other local sanctuaries where sacrifices were conducted. To conduct worship at these locations was an act of rebellion against the Lord (Am 4:4-5). As priest of Bethel, Amaziah epitomized this condemned religious system, and because Bethel was “the king’s sanctuary” (7:13), he represented the entire nation of Israel. The invasion of the Assyrians would be marked by great cruelty; all Israel’s inhabitants would suffer, including Amaziah’s children and his wife. When the Assyrians carried Amaziah into exile, along with other Israelite leaders, his wife would have no source of support and might well be forced into prostitution for a livelihood. Regardless of their personal guilt or innocence, the members of Amaziah’s family would face the dire consequences of the judgment to come.