THE MINOR PROPHETS, TRANSLATED FROM THE HEBREW TEXT, AND A COMMENTARY, CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL, BY A. ELZAS, Translator of the Proverbs, Job, Hoshea, and Joel, Author of TRÜBNER & CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL. TO BE HAD OF P. VALENTINE, 34, ALFRED STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, W.C.; AND OF INTRODUCTION. Amos (Heb. DiDy burden, a word purely Hebrew, and not of Egyptian origin, and the same as Amasis or Amosis, as Gesenius conjectures), was, as we learn from the inscription, a native of Tekoa, a small town in the tribe of Judah, at the distance of about twelve miles south-east of Jerusalem. The country round being sandy and barren, was destitute of cultivation, and fit only to be occupied by those addicted to pastoral life. Among these our prophet was originally found; and, though it was counted no disgrace in ancient times, any more than it is at the present day in Arabia to follow this occupation, kings themselves being found in it (2 Kings, iii., v. 4), yet there is no reason to suppose that Amos belonged to a family of rank or influence, but the contrary. No mention is made of his father; but too much stress is not to be laid upon this circumstance. That he had been in poor circumstances, however, appears from the statement made chapter vii., v. 14; from which also it is incontrovertible, that no change of circumstances intervened, which may be supposed to have been more favourable to mental culture, but that he was called at once to exchange the life of a shepherd for that of a prophet. Though a native of the kingdom of Judah, he discharged the functions of his office in that of Israel-a act which is to be accounted for, not, as Bertholdt conjectures, on the ground of some personal relations, but by an express Divine commission to occupy it as the scene of his labours. Eichhorn ingeniously supposes the reasons of his selection to have been, that the appearance of a foreign prophet was much more calculated to excite attention than that of a native, and that such a prophet was more likely to command respect than any belonging to a kingdom in which impostors and fanatics abounded. The time at which he prophesied is stated in general terms, chapter i., v. 1, to have been in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II., king of Israel, the former of whom reigned B.C. 811-759, and the latter B.C. 825-784, but in which of these years he was called to the office, and how long he continued to exercise it, we are not told. Even if any dependence could be placed upon Josephus (Antiq. ix., 10, 4), and Jerome (on Amos i., v. I), that the earthquake mentioned here, and Zech. xiv., v. 5, took place when Uzziah attempted to usurp the sacerdotal functions, we should still be unable to fix the exact date, since it is uncertain in what year the attempt was made. That he was contemporary with Hoshea, appears not only from the dates assigned in both their books, but from the identical state of affairs in the kingdom of the ten tribes, which they so graphically |