Amos

The Book of Amos is well known for its criticism of the rich elite of the kingdom of Israel. This commentary argues that this social criticism is inextricably connected to the religious convictions of both the prophets and the later redactors of the book. Their notions of God – a sole deity governing history – have been formative for later Yahwism. As for the emergence of the book: it is argued that a set of original words on Amos has twice been redacted: once after the military raids and conquests of the Neo-Assyrian empire and once after the calamities in nature and climate in the final decades of the eighth century BCE. During the Babylonian exile a final redaction took place that arranged the Book of Amos in its present form and added three hymnis fragments.