Patrick, Dale. The Rhetoric of Revelation in the Hebrew Bible.

-Amos originated the speech form

-The text is a collection of speeches that were put into writing and compiled by
traditionalisits to communicate with audiences.
-Speaks during the later years of Jeroboam II, and this can be accepted as all Amos
-There are some passages, such as the heading, the doxologies, the oracle against
Judah, and other scattered verses that do not seem to fit so well.
-Patrick attempts to create a picture of the prophet as well, wanting to understand
how he made his message effective and the challenges he underwent.
-Collective guilt and individual guilt are two separate entities, and Amos uses the
former, and shows corporate, recurrent behavior (for three…for four). Amos shows
that they were given a chance but missed it
-“What Amos had to do was to show that the particular offenses were
manifestations of a corruption of power, a bondage to vice, and an ideological
distortion of reality so deep and pervasive that an intervention of God is required to
break the pattern”
-“The oppressive class is decadent, and the religious life and faith of the nation are
corrupt”
-Amos chides the people for oppressing the poor and marginal, and reevaluates
what is important, to “let justice roll on like water, justice like an ever-flowing
stream.”
-Amos shows that because of Israel’s chosenness, they therefore must follow their
set laws and will be punished for not doing them as well. He shows that their being
special is not always in positive light, and that God has freed other nations as well
(Philistines from Capthor, Aram from Kir).
-Amos evokes images of destruction and mass deportation, although never singles
out politics or Assyria by name
-Commentators are uncertain whether Amos says the people can still repent or not
-Just as a judge must reveal the verdict at the end of a trial in order to put the
sentence into effect and to show the fate of the accused in the future, so too must
Amos confront the people and let them know what has been declared for them via
the Divine Law.
-The people must realize their fate is determined by their own hand. They have
committed too many crimes, and the day of reckoning is now upon them. The
prophecy is one last test to see if the people can understand that they have done
wrong or if they will simply shirk from the prophet’s words. His task is bound to fail.
Or perhaps we can look at it as if his word inaugurated judgment and weakened
resolve, and the people could not resist his word entirely.
Muffs, Yochanan. Love & Joy: Law, Language and Religion in Ancient Israel.
-The prophet is sent as the “agent of turning,” sometimes against his will.
-He is both the messenger of God and that of the people to rescind the evil decree of
the Heavenly Court (Abraham—Sodom & Gomorrah)
-The term “eved” is equated with “elect”—it is out of love and friendship
-Prophetic prayer indicates freedom of conscience
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