ABSTRACT
Chapter seven contains the first three of the visions and the encounter between Amos and Amaziah. Considerable ink has been expended discussing the relationship between this narrative and the vision cycle, with various theories on how and why the text achieved its present sequence. There is a sense of growing impatience and desperation in the sequence of the two visions, even as much as the repeated themes and motifs reinforce each other. The locusts are a terrible plague, but are of this world. The second vision has significantly increased the stakes, from the farmer's crops being ravaged to a cosmic fire, leaving the world adrift in flames. There are clear mythic references as noted by Paul, Limburg, and others. Accent soon falls on the item Amos is asked to identify. Manipulation is the keyword. God does not need to know what Amos sees, because he showed it to the man himself.
