A shepherd and "dresser of sycamore [fig] trees" from the Judean village of Tekoa who denounced the religious and social practices of the northern kingdom (Israel) during the reign of Jeroboam II (c 786-746 b c e ), Amos was the first biblical prophet whose words were collected and preserved in a book
flourished 8th century BC Earliest Hebrew prophet (one of the 12 Minor Prophets) to have a biblical book named for him. Born in Tekoa in Judah, he was a shepherd. According to the book of Amos, he traveled to the richer and more powerful northern kingdom of Israel to preach his visions of divine destruction and the message that God's absolute sovereignty required justice for rich and poor alike and that God's chosen people were not exempt from the moral order. He foretold the destruction of the northern kingdom and Judah and anticipated the predictions of doom by later biblical prophets. Alcott Amos Bronson Comenius John Amos Jan Amos Komensky Oz Amos Amos Klausner Stagg Amos Alonzo Tutuola Amos Whitney Amos
borne; a burden, one of the twelve minor prophets He was a native of Tekota, the modern Tekua, a town about 12 miles south-east of Bethlehem He was a man of humble birth, neither a "prophet nor a prophet's son," but "an herdman and a dresser of sycomore trees," R V He prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and was contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea (Amos 1: 1; 7: 14, 15; Zech 14: 5), who survived him a few years Under Jeroboam II the kingdom of Israel rose to the zenith of its prosperity; but that was followed by the prevalence of luxury and vice and idolatry At this period Amos was called from his obscurity to remind the people of the law of God's retributive justice, and to call them to repentance
One of the Twelve Prophets; eighth century prophet from Tekoa in Judah, preached to the Northern Kingdom emphasizing social justice and the coming Day of Yahweh See Chapter 13