Amos and Hosea Prophesy to Israel
about 755 BC, estimated dateEstimated date
In the prosperous years of Jeroboam II, Amos, a herdsman from Judah, denounces injustice and worship without righteousness at Bethel. Hosea makes his own marriage a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness and of a love that will not give it up.
Under Jeroboam II the northern kingdom recovered its old borders (2 Kings 14:25–28). The book of Amos describes its leading people as rich and at ease, lying on beds of ivory, and as zealous in their festivals and offerings (Amos 6:1–6) (Amos 5:21–23).
Amos kept flocks and tended sycamore figs at Tekoa in Judah (Amos 1:1) (Amos 7:12–14). He went north and announced judgment on Israel for selling the needy, denying justice to the poor and crushing the weak (Amos 2:6–8) (Amos 4:1–3). Being chosen, he said, made Israel more answerable, not safer (Amos 3:1–2). In the Lord’s name he rejected the worship of the sanctuaries (Amos 5:21–24):
But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
At Bethel, the king’s sanctuary, the priest Amaziah accused him of conspiracy and told him to go home and prophesy in Judah. Amos answered that he was no prophet by trade; the Lord had taken him from following the flock. He repeated that Israel would go into exile (Amos 7:10–17).
Hosea began under the same king (Hosea 1:1). His book says he was told to marry a woman of prostitution. He married Gomer, and their three children were given names of judgment: Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi, “not my people” (Hosea 1:2–9). A second account has him buy an adulterous woman and keep her apart for many days (Hosea 3). The marriage stands for the covenant. Israel has gone after the Baals, and the Lord will win her back and betroth her to himself for ever (Hosea 2:14–20). Hosea names the coming master, Assyria, and sets against the judgment the Lord’s own reluctance: “How can I give you up, Ephraim?” (Hosea 11:1–9).
Within a generation Assyria ended the northern kingdom (The Fall of Samaria). The New Testament draws on both prophets. Matthew applies “Out of Egypt I called my son” to Jesus and has Jesus quote “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 2:15) (Matthew 9:13). Paul applies “not my people” to the calling of the gentiles (Romans 9:24–26). At the council in Jerusalem, James cites Amos’s promise that David’s fallen tent will be rebuilt (Amos 9:11–12) (Acts 15:13–18).
How this is dated
Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.
Amos dates his words to the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, “two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1). The earthquake was still remembered centuries later (Zechariah 14:5), but no source gives its year. Hosea’s heading runs from Uzziah to Hezekiah (Hosea 1:1). His first oracle looks ahead to the end of Jehu’s dynasty, which came with the murder of Jeroboam’s son (Hosea 1:4) (2 Kings 15:8–12), so he too began while Jeroboam was alive.
In the chronology of Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (3rd ed., 1983), Jeroboam II died in 753 BC. Amos is usually placed about 760 BC. Steven A. Austin, Gordon W. Franz and Eric G. Frost, “Amos’s Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C.”, International Geology Review 42 (2000), pp. 657–671, argue from earthquake damage at excavated sites for a date about 750 BC. Hosea’s preaching went on for decades after this.
Primary sources
In context
Grows out of
- about 930 BC, estimated date
Leads to
- 722/721 BC, estimated date