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The Judgment Is Near

Judgment of the Nations

Chapter 1

Title and Introduction.[a] These are the words of Amos, a shepherd of Tekoa, concerning visions in regard to Israel during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, two years prior to the earthquake.

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 1:1 Amos’s message comes in the middle of a peaceful century, the eighth century B.C. According to the editor, the message applies to the whole Israelite people; this is why he mentions the king of the south (Uzziah: 781–740 B.C.) as well as the king of the north (Jeroboam II: 783–743 B.C.). We have no other information regarding the time of the great earthquake, which must have shaken Amos’s contemporaries, since they would have seen it as fulfilling the prophet’s threats.

You will flee by the valley of the Lord’s mountain, for the valley between the hills will be blocked, and the new valley between them will reach as far as Azal. It will be filled in, as it was by the earthquake, in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all his holy ones with him.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 14:5 The earthquake must have been a very violent one if it made history and can serve as a parallel for the catastrophe in the Pentapolis. The historical books make no reference to this earthquake (see Am 1:1; 4:11).