The kingdoms which centered at Damascus began to reach out for territory, and harassed Israel until the imperial growth of Assyria caused the withdrawal of Syrian troops to protect their own land. Left alone, the northern kingdom developed her own resources and attained a prosperity rivaling the time of Solomon. Meanwhile, Judah had been sheltered from outside wars and less affected by religious orders.
The period intervening between the fall of Damascus and the wars of Tiglath-Pileser III. has been aptly called "Israel's Indian Summer." The outlying territories of David came once more under Hebrew rule, divided between the kingdoms of the north and south. Commerce, long abandoned, sprang up and rivaled its tide in Solomon's reign. Unfortunately, the social life of the people lacked its earlier simplicity, and there were tendencies within the kingdom itself which pointed to the disintegration of the state as surely as did the forces that were soon to approach its walled cities.
First, recent wars had fallen most heavily upon the middle class. Small farmers, returning from campaigns of defense of Hebrew borders, found their estates run down, sometimes dismantled. Having no means of building them up again, they frequently sank into the peasantry. In periods of reaction, when property and commercial activity returned, it was the wealthy who were benefited, while the poor became poorer yet. In this way the middle class had practically disappeared. Such a loss would be serious enough to a state, but this was by no means all. The simplicity of living which had characterized the early years of the Hebrew nation had given way to extravagance and reckless waste on the part of the rich, throwing into powerful contrast the condition of the poor. The humbler classes were oppressed—not by foreign foes, but by the wealthy of their own state, and abandonment of any sympathy between social classes was one of the most alarming tendencies.
The religious life of the country was at a low ebb. By the masses Jehovah was still regarded as God of the Hebrews—a tribal God, quite as Baal was god of the Phœnicians, or Asshur of the Assyrians. It was taught by the priests that Jehovah would cause the Hebrews to win against their enemies, since only by their triumphs was he honored. He was worshipped much as were the gods of other nations. Licentious customs borrowed from neighboring peoples, profaned the very temples, and undermined earlier religious simplicity.
It was such a state of affairs that called forth the utterances of Amos and Hosea, from whose addresses we learn of social conditions in their day. In some hearts the religious mission of the Hebrews still remained the most sacred of all trusts. When evils of their age threatened to engulf them, certain clear-sighted ones were moved to rouse the people—to bring home to them the consequences sure to overtake their kingdom unless these glaring wrongs were corrected.
Such a spirit was Amos, a simple, clear-minded shepherd, dwelling on the borderland between Israel and Judah, and closely observant of affairs in both states. Inspired to voice his protest against the corruption of his people, he left his flocks and journeyed to Bethel, the religious center of Israel. Reaching the temple on a feast day, he was confronted by riotous music and unseemly merriment, desecrating the temple itself. It was then he created a sensation by his passionate address, fragments of which are preserved to us in the biblical book which bears his name. Instead of offending at once by quick reproof, and thus losing a chance to be heard, he began by predicting misfortunes certain to overtake neighboring peoples because of their misdoings. In this way he won the attention and approval of an audience who liked to be told that they were the Chosen People, and Jehovah was with them, and that—apparently no matter what they did—he would not permit them to fail. Then Amos launched into the iniquity of Israel, and prophesied disasters sure to befall her. He uttered a new truth when he said that since the Hebrews had received special blessings from Jehovah, even more strictly would they be held to account for their shortcomings; that as their light had been greater than that bestowed upon their neighbors, so would the requirements be greater for them than for others.
"Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
"The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise up; she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord God: The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
"For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and ye shall live; but seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
"Seek the Lord and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name....