Read this if you…
- like prophets who go after the rich for stepping on the poor
- care about where "let justice roll down like waters" comes from
- want a short OT book
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Why It Matters
Amos is where prophetic social justice starts. His point that worship means nothing if you're not treating people justly ran through every prophet after him, and it became a cornerstone of liberation theology. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted him in his most famous speech.
Depicted in Art
Amos stands in a vast pastoral landscape with his shepherd's staff, gazing into the distance — the herdsman of Tekoa called to prophesy.
Gustave Doré, 1866
Standing prophet in Middle Eastern robes rendered with Tissot's ethnographic detail, holding a scroll.
James Jacques Joseph Tissot
Intarsia (wood-inlay) portrait of Amos as a robed sage, set into a sacristy wall panel.
Antonio del Pollaiuolo, 1465
Leaded-glass figure of Amos with scroll, set within a Jesse-tree program in the apse of St. Kunibert.
Mosaic figure of Amos in the byzantinizing 13th-century ceiling program of the Florence Baptistery.
Amos among the twelve minor prophets in the concentric circles surrounding the Virgin in Chartres' north rose window.
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
“Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”