*** The famine is mentioned in Amos iv. 6, the drought in
     Amos iv. 7, 8, the pestilence in Amos iv. 10.

     **** Amos v. 21-24.

The unfaithfulness of Israel, the corruption of its cities, the pride of its nobles, had sealed its doom; even at that moment the avenger was at hand on its north-eastern border, the Assyrian appointed to carry out sentence upon it.* Then follow visions, each one of which tends to deepen the effect of the seer’s words—­a cloud of locusts,** a devouring fire,*** a plumb-line in the hands of the Lord,**** a basket laden with summer fruits—­till at last the whole people of Israel take refuge in their temple, vainly hoping that there they may escape from the vengeance of the Eternal.  “There shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.  Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.  And though they hide themselves in the top of Oarmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.  And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them; and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good."^

* Most commentators admit that the nation raised up by Jahveh to oppress Israel “from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of the Arabah” (Amos vi. 14) was no other than Assyria.  At the very period in which Amos flourished, Assurdan made two campaigns against Hadrach, in 765 and 755, which brought his armies right up to the Israelite frontier (Schrader, Keilinschrift.  Bibliothec, vol. i. pp. 210- 213).

     ** Amos vii. 1-3.

     *** Amos vii. 4-6.

**** Amos vii. 7-9.  It is here that the speech delivered by the prophet at Bethel is supposed to occur (vii. 9); the narrative of what afterwards happened follows immediately (Amos vii. 10-17).

     ^ Amos viii. 1-3.; Amos ix. 1-4.

For the first time in history a prophet foretold disaster and banishment for a whole people:  love of country was already giving place in the heart of Amos to his conviction of the universal jurisdiction of God, and this conviction led him to regard as possible and probable a state of things in which Israel should have no part.  Nevertheless, its decadence was to be merely temporary; Jahveh, though prepared to chastise the posterity of Jacob severely, could not bring Himself to destroy it utterly.  The kingdom of David was soon to flourish anew:  “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.  And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.  And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God."*