ABSTRACT
Amos (‘Burden-bearer’), the earliest of the 16 recorded prophets, was at work in Samaria late in the reign of Jeroboam II in the mid-eighth century bc, a century after Elijah. According to 2 Kgs 14–15, the reign was long and successful, in spite of Jeroboam’s pagan leanings, but his death was followed first by anarchy, and then by wars with neighbouring states, including the sister-Israelite kingdom, Judah. The great power of Assyria was an ever-increasing threat, nibbling at the kingdom before finally devouring it, c.722 bc. Several of the 16 prophets are associated with this period, including Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah. (The following selection is arranged, not in the biblical order, but so that the development of prophecy can be traced in parallel with the ‘History’; see pp. 169, 186.)
