ABSTRACT
Amos, a prophet active in eighth-century BCE northern Israel, remains an elusive figure. He may have tried to instigate a coup d’état against the king, Jeroboam, whom he knew to be unwilling or unable to carry through social reforms such as a general remission or reduction of peasant debt, or the restriction of debt bondage. Like his younger contemporary, Hosea, he may have thought that a reunion of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, under the leadership of the Davidic dynasty would solve political and social problems. Amos enforced his programme – if that is the right word for it – not only by presenting it as the explicit will of Yahweh, the God of the state, but also by foretelling a military invasion by the Assyrians, who would destroy the urban centres and thus ‘punish’ the elite for its social crimes. Whether this prophet’s activity had any impact on society we do not know. He may have left the country after having cursed both the priest of Bethel, who had denounced him at the royal court, and the priest’s wife, angrily announcing her inevitable fate as a city prostitute (Amos 7:17).
