In the case of Amos, also, interpreters have been at considerable pains in fixing the time and the occasion of the single portions, but with as little success as in the cases of Hosea and Micah. The very inscription proves that we have before us a whole, composed at one time, and containing the substance of what the prophet had uttered previously, and in a detached form. According to this inscription, the book was composed only two years after the prophet's personal ministry in the kingdom of Israel. But if there were such an interval betwixt the oral preaching of the prophet and its having been committed to writing, it is, a priori, not likely that the latter should have followed the former, step by step.
The words, "Two years before the earthquake," cannot be regarded as a chronological date, intended to fix more definitely the exact time within the more extended period previously stated, viz., "the days of Uzziah and Jeroboam." For such a purpose they are ill suited, inasmuch as the time of the earthquake is not fixed; and, moreover, any such more definite determination would have been without either significance or interest. This only was of importance, that the word of the Lord should have been uttered in the days of Jeroboam, and that the prophecy of the destruction should have been delivered at a time when the Israelites enjoyed an amount of prosperity, such as they had not known for a long time. It can scarcely be doubted that the earthquake under Uzziah, the fearfulness of which is testified by Zech. xiv. 5, comes under consideration only as the reason for the composition of the book,—for committing to writing what had formerly been delivered orally. The earthquake denotes, in the symbolical language of Scripture, great revolutions, by which the form of the earth is changed, and that which is uppermost, overturned; compare my remarks on Rev. vi. 12. To point to such an earthquake had been the fundamental thought of Amos' oral predictions. By the natural earthquake, he was induced to commit them to writing, that they might go side by side with the symbol, and serve as its interpreter.
There is a plan in the arrangement of the book, which indicates that the book is not a collection of separate discourses, but that it bears an independent character. It is distinctly divided into two parts,—the first, made up of naked prophecies, from chap. i. to chap. vi.; the second, of such prophecies as are connected with a symbol, which is always very simple, and very briefly described,—from chap. vii. to chap. ix.
In the first part, the prophet begins with the announcement of the wrath of the Lord, ver. 2. He then reviews, in their order, those kingdoms upon which it shall be poured out, viz., Damascus, Philistia, Tyrus, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah: until at last the storm reaches to Israel, and, according to Rückert's striking remarks, remains suspended over it.
In addition to Israel, there are seven nations, and the seven are divided into three, and four; three not related to the people of the ten tribes, and four related to them; the brotherly people of Judah being introduced after three nations have been mentioned which are more distantly related to Israel.
According to Rückert, it is only in chap. ii. 6-16 that the storm which remained suspended over Israel is described; then in chap. iii.-vi. there follow four threatening discourses, which are not connected either with the preceding ones, or with each other. But the correct view rather is, that this stationary suspension is described in the whole of the first half,—in the main, indeed, even to the end of the book.
This is evident from the consideration that, if such were not the case, the treatment of the main subject would be, as regards the extent of the description, greatly disproportioned to the introduction; for chap. i. to ii. 5 must be considered to be, throughout, merely introductory. But as the ground on which we advance this assertion is made in opposition to an unsound view, it requires a more particular determination. It is assumed by many interpreters, that in the nations besides Israel, the prophet reproves "some haughty excesses, but, evidently, only as instances of the immorality prevailing" (Jahn, Einl. 2, p. 404). But this view, according to which the prophet might, instead of the various crimes mentioned, have noticed any other crime, e.g., fornication, idolatry, etc., is certainly erroneous. It is rather a theocratic judgment of which he speaks throughout; they are crimes against the theocracy, the punishment of which he announces. These he considers as being more heinous than all others; for the guilt of the latter is diminished by the circumstance of their having been committed against the hidden God only, while the former have been committed against the God who has manifested Himself, and who is living among His people. For so much is evident, that the main cause of the hatred of all the neighbouring nations against Israel was, that Israel was the people of God. For where can an instance be found of a hatred betwixt any two of them, so inextinguishable, and continuing through centuries? How entirely different is, e.g., the position of Edom against Moab, from that of Edom against Israel? Three reasons confirm the correctness of our assertion as to the purely theocratic nature of the judgment. 1. The general announcement of the judgment. "Jehovah roareth from Zion, and from Jerusalem He giveth His voice." The very use of the name Jehovah here deserves attention. A judgment of a general kind upon the heathen would belong to God as Elohim. It is Elohim who is the God of the heathen,—the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world, from whom blessings, as well as judgments upon it, proceed. Now it might be said that Jehovah is used in the case of the heathen also, for the sake of uniformity, because to Him belongeth the judgment upon Judah and Israel. But that this is not the case, is seen from the addition: "From Zion,—from Jerusalem." Every general judgment proceeds from heaven; it is only as a theocratic God, that God reigns in Zion and Jerusalem. This argument admits of no exception; all that God does from Zion is theocratic deliverance, or theocratic judgment.—2. The nature of the crimes themselves, which are cited by way of example. It can certainly not be merely accidental, that they are all such as were committed against the Covenant-people. There is one only which forms an apparent exception, viz., that of the Moabites, who are, in chap. ii. 1, charged with having burned into lime the bones of the king of Edom. But, with the consent of the greater number of interpreters, Jerome remarks on this: "In order that God might show that He is the Lord of all, and that every soul is subject to Him who formed it. He punishes the iniquity committed against the king of Edom." But in this remark of Jerome, the relation in which Idumea stood to the Covenant-people is altogether lost sight of. It is only as a vassal of their kings that the king of Edom here comes into view. This is sufficiently manifest from 2 Kings iii., although the event narrated there is different from that which is here alluded to, of which no record has been preserved in history.[4] The hatred against the Covenant-people, which the Moabites were too weak openly to exhibit, impelled them to this wicked deed against the king tributary to them.—3. It must be carefully observed how the prophet, when coming to Judah, introduces us, at once, into the centre of theocratic transgression, the forsaking of the living God, and the serving of vain, dead idols.
It will now be easily seen in what way the portion, chap. i.-ii. 5, serves as an introduction to what follows. The prophecies against foreign nations do not, as elsewhere, serve as a consolation, or as a proof of the love of God towards His people, and of His omnipotence, or as a means for destroying confidence in man's power, in man's help; they are, on the contrary, intended, from the very outset, to give rise in Israel to the question: If such be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? That question the prophet answers at large. If severe punishment be inflicted, even upon those who have trespassed against the living God, with whom they came into contact only distantly, what will become of those to whom He manifested Himself so plainly and distinctly,—among whom He had, as it were, gained a form,—before whose eyes He had been so evidently set forth? The declaration, "You only do I know of all the families of the earth; therefore I shall visit upon you all your iniquities" (iii. 2), forms the centre of the whole threatening announcement to Israel. And could it indeed be introduced in any better way than by pointing out, how even the lowest degree of knowledge was followed by such a visitation? But now, that which under the Old Testament was the highest degree, becomes, under the New Testament, only a preparatory step. The revelation of God in Christ stands in the same relation to that made to Israel under the Old Testament, as the latter stands to the manifestation of His character and nature to the heathen, who came into connection with the Covenant-people. Thus the fulfilment becomes to us a new prophecy. If the rejection of God, in His inferior revelation, was followed by such awful consequences to the temporal welfare of the people of the Old Covenant, what must be the consequences of the rejection of the highest and fullest revelation of God to the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people of the New Covenant? This is a thought which is further expanded in Heb. xii. 17 ff., and it forms the essential feature of the description of the judgment of the world in the New Testament. This judgment has been but too often thus misunderstood, as if it concerned the world as the world,—a misunderstanding similar to that of the section before us. The Gospel shall first be preached to every creature, and according as every one has conducted himself towards the living God, so he shall be judged.—But it is not to the heathen nations only, but to Judah also that, by way of introduction, destruction is announced. The circumstance that not even the possession of so many precious privileges, as the temple and the Davidic throne, could ward off the well-merited punishment of sin, could not but powerfully affect the hearts of the ten tribes. If God's justice be so energetic, what have they to expect?
If we continue the examination of Rückert's view, it will soon appear that the phrase, "Hear this word," in iii. 1, iv. 1, and v. 1, can alone be considered as the foundation on which it rests. But these words do not at all prove a new commencement, but only a new starting-point. This appears sufficiently from the absence of these words at the alleged fourth threatening discourse in chap. vi.; and likewise from a comparison of Hosea iv. 1 and v. 1: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel," and "Hear this, ye priests, and hearken, ye house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king;" while nothing similar occurs in the following chapters. That such an exhortation was appropriate, even in the middle, is clearly seen from Amos iii. 13. It cannot then, per se, prove anything in favour of a new beginning. If it is to be regarded as such, the discourse must be proved, by other reasons, to have been completed. But no such reasons here exist. We might as reasonably assume the existence of ten threatening discourses, as of four. The circumstance that we can nowhere discover a sure commencement and a clearly defined termination, shows that we are fully justified in considering the whole first part, chap. i. to vi., as a connected discourse.
The second part, which contains the visions of the destruction, is composed, indeed, of various portions,—as might have been expected from the nature of the subject. Each new vision, with the discourse connected with it, must form a new section. Chap. vii., viii., and ix., form each a whole. From the account which is added to the first vision; and which relates to the transactions between Amos and the high priest Amaziah, which were caused by the public announcement of this vision (chap. vii. 12-14), we are led to suppose that these visions were formerly delivered singly, in the form in which we now possess them. But that, even here, we have not before us pieces loosely connected with each other in a chronological arrangement, is evident from the fact, that the promises stand just at the end of the whole collection. The prophet had rather to reprove and to threaten than to comfort; but yet he cannot refrain, at least at the close, from causing the sun to break through the clouds. Without this close there would be wanting in Amos a main element of the prophetic discourse, which is wanting in no other prophet, and by which alone the other elements are placed in a proper light.