Minor Prophets XXXI: Amos The Semi-Nomadic Shepherd

"The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.” Amos 1:1-2

Tekoa is in the kingdom of Judah (south of Israel) on the Eastern slopes of the Judean hills approximately 10 miles south of Jerusalem or about 5 miles south of Bethlehem. It is also about 10 miles west of the Dead Sea. This region is on the edge of the rain shadow or is lower in elevation than the higher hills farther west. Because of this it was too dry for reliable cultivation as the higher geographical features would often strip the moisture from the clouds just as the Sierra Nevada does to the Pacific moisture before it enters the desert southwest in the USA (Myers 97).

Amos 1:1 straight away tells us that this prophet was one of the shepherds of Tekoa. For a man that was a shepherd in a semi-arid region that would’ve been prone to being dry he would’ve probably needed to have been at least semi-nomadic to assure his herd was fed properly on sparse foliage and grasses. Because of this the very first vision would’ve been exceptionally ominous to people like Amos and his ilk: “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers” since the area Amos was from was prone to drought, famine and plague due to is meager and precarious agricultural sustenance. Amos was a rugged man from a rugged terrain. God was using imagery and language Amos could very clearly understand and convey to others.

Myers, Jacob Martin. "Amos: Introduction-Authorship." The Book of Hosea ; The Book of Joel ; The Book of Amos ; The Book of Obadiah ; The Book of Jonah . Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1978. 97. Print.