Five Visions of Doom (Chs. 7-9:10).

        These visions, though told at the end of his public ministry, in all probability are part of Amos’ call. Amos’ message will have wakened fierce hostility not merely in official priestly circles (7:10-13). So it is that in his second group of mes­sages he had to give a general justification of his prophesying (3:3-8), but now in his final appearance he had specifically to justify his message by an appeal to divinely given visions.

        The visions contain a number of references to ancient ideas about the world, viz. the great deep (7:4), the position of Sheol (9:2), the great sea-serpent (9:3). The force of the fourth vision (8:If) lies in a play on words: end = qets, autumn fruit = qiats (cf. Jer. 1:llf, and p. 64).

        The sin of Samaria (8:14) is generally taken to be the golden calf of Bethel — cf. “thy God, O Dan” — but on the basis of Hos. 8:5f it is simpler to assume that a bull image was set up in Samaria as well, when it became the capital. This passing expression shows that Amos’ virtual silence about the idolatrous, Canaanized worship of the North in no way implied approval or acquiescence.

        Amos closes his message of doom by going beyond his earlier denial of Jehovah’s favouritism (3:If). He not merely implicitly denies the commonly held view that Jehovah needed Israel, but explicitly affirms that essentially all peoples are God’s people, and that all movements of the nations are as much God’s doing as the Exodus from Egypt (9:7). Therein lies the certainty that a just God will justly judge Israel. The A.V. mg. is correct in 9:9, “…yet shall not the least stone fall upon the earth.” God is not merely the God of the nation, but also of the individual, and ultimately His judg­ments are individual judgments.