Amos & Hosea: Prophets to Israel

Hebrew Poetry• Marked by parallelism

– Synonymous parallelism• The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,• the world, and all who live in it PS 24:1

Hebrew Poetry• Marked by parallelism

– Antithetical parallelism• PS 1:6 For the LORD watches over the way of the

righteous,• but the way of the wicked will perish.

– Parallelism of Specification/Synthetic

Hebrew Poetry• Other Poetic Devices

– Chiasm A B B’ A’“You shall break them with a rod of iron,

Like a vessel of the potter you shall crush them” (Ps 2:9).

Hebrew Poetry• Acrostic

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Introduction to Prophets

• The Prophets and History – Israel and Judah

Introduction to Minor Prophets• The Minor Prophets and History

– 8th Century Prophets– 7th Century Prophets– Post-exilic Prophets (6th-5th century)

Amos---Hosea---Micah

Jeremiah

EzekielHaggaiZechariah

Ma l ach i

Isaiah

Nahum/Habakkuk/Zephaniah/

Obadiah

Who Was Amos?• Amos’ hometown

was Tekoa• He preached in:

– Bethel/Samaria

Who Was Amos?

• His occupation:– A “sheep-breeder” – A “herdsman”– Cultivator of

sycamore-fig trees

The Book of Amos

• 1:1-2—Introduction

• 1:3-2:16—Judgment on the nations

(including Israel)

• 3:1-6:14—Miscellaneous

Prophecies

• 7:1-8:3—Visions & Narrative

• 8:4-9:15—Miscellaneous

Prophecies

The Message of Amos?• Ethical requirements of religion

• Judgment was coming (but not final!)

Selected Texts• Amos 3:1-2

Hear this word the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:

“You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Selected Texts• Amos 5:18-27

– Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD!

Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light—pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (NIV)

Selected Texts• Amos 5:18-27

– “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Selected Texts• Amos 5:14-15—A word of hope?

– Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. (NIV)

Selected Texts• Amos 9:10-12—A word of hope

– All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, all those who say,

‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’ “In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the LORD, who will do these things. (NIV)

Hosea

Hosea’s Background• When did he preach?

– 1:1—“Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, & Hezekiah”– “Jeroboam II”—Died about 750 B.C.– 722 B.C.—Fall of Samaria not mentioned.– 760-725 B.C.

• Hosea’s Marriage—literal or symbolic?

Hosea’s Background• Hosea’s Marriage

—literal or symbolic? Narrative or parable?

Hosea’s Background

1. Israel has deserted God and committed

Adultery by chasing after other gods.

3.God will ultimately restore them as His people.

Hosea’s Message

2. They will be punished for their sins.

Selected Passages• Hosea 4:1-3—God’s Lawsuit

Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment

of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away;

the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.”

Selected Passages• Hosea 6:4-6—God & His People

"What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

What does God desire?

Selected Passages• The dew:

– 6:4 Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

– 13:3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

– 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots.