properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Amos
עָמוֹס֙'a.mOs
H5986
Amos · proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֣אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Amaziah
אֲמַצְיָ֔ה'a.matz.Yah
H558
Amatsjah · proper noun, a man's name
prophet
נָבִ֣יאna.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · noun, common masculine singular absolute
prophet’s
נָבִ֖יאna.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · noun, common masculine singular absolute
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
herdman
בוֹקֵ֥רvo.Ker
H951
a cattle-tender · noun, common masculine singular absolute
gatherer
וּבוֹלֵ֥סu.vo.Les
H1103
to pinch sycamore figs (a process necessary to ripen th… · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
fruit
שִׁקְמִֽיםshik.Mim
H8256
a sycamore (usually the tree) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days o…
Zechariah 13:5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.
2 Kings 2:5 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master fr…
2 Kings 4:38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto…
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the t…
2 Kings 2:3 And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy mas…
2 Chronicles 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that…
1 Kings 20:35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 7:10–end
One would have expected, 1. That what we met with in the former part of the chapter would awaken the people to repentance, when they saw that they were reprieved in order that they might have space to repent and that they could not obtain a pardon unless the did repent. 2. That it would endear the prophet Amos to them, who had not only shown his good-will to them in praying against the judgments that invaded them, but had prevailed to turn away those judgments, which, if they had had any sense of gratitude, would have gained him an interest in their affections. But it fell out quite contrary; they continue impenitent, and the next news we hear of Amos is that he is persecuted. Note, As it is…
I was no prophet--in answer to Amaziah's insinuation (Amo 7:12), that he discharged the prophetical office to earn his "bread" (like Israel's mercenary prophets). So far from being rewarded, Jehovah's prophets had to expect imprisonment and even death as the result of their prophesying in Samaria or Israel: whereas the prophets of Baal were maintained at the king's expense (compare Kg1 18:19). I was not, says Amos, of the order of prophets, or educated in their schools, and deriving a livelihood from exercising the public functions of a prophet. I am a shepherd (compare Amo 7:15, "flock"; the Hebrew for "herdsman" includes the meaning, shepherd, compare Amo 1:1) in humble position, who did n…
I was no prophet - I am an extraordinary messenger of God. I am not called to the prophetic office but for this occasion. I have no message to Judah, and therefore need not go there. I have a message to Israel alone, and I must faithfully deliver it.
For the account which Amos gives here of himself, see the introduction.
John Gill on Amos 7:14
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah,.... With much freedom, boldness, and intrepidity, and yet with modesty and humility; not at all moved by his frowns or his flattery:
I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son: he was not a prophet originally, or from his youth, as Kimchi; he was not born and bred one; neither his father was a prophet, by whom he could get any instructions in the mystery of prophesying; nor was he a disciple of any of the prophets, or brought up in any of their schools as some were; he was no prophet till the Lord called him immediately, at once, from his secular employment to this office; and therefore did not take it up to get a livelihood by Jarchi and Aben E…
The Church Fathers
Amos also said, "I was no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but only a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And God took me." But he did not say this to exalt himself, but to stop their mouths that suspected him as no prophet, and to show that he is no deceiver, nor says of his own mind the things which he says.
If the spirit of prophecy had always been present to the prophets, the prophet Amos when asked would never have said, "I am no prophet"; he even adds, "neither a prophet's son, but I am a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit." How then was he no prophet who foretold so many true things concerning the future? Or in what way was he a prophet if he at the time disowned the truth concerning himself? At the moment that he was called in question, he felt that the spirit of prophecy was not with him. He bore true testimony concerning himself in saying, "I am not a prophet." Yet he added afterward, "Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. Therefore thus said the Lord, 'Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line, and you shall die in a polluted land.' " By these words of the prophet it is plainly shown that while he was bearing that testimony about himself he was filled, and on the instant rewarded with the spirit of prophecy, because he humbly acknowledged himself to be no prophet.
How good it is to raise up eyes of faith to the power of this worker, the Holy Spirit, and to look here and there at our ancestors in the Old and New Testaments. With the eyes of my faith open, I gaze on David, on Amos, on Daniel, on Peter, on Paul, on Matthew—and I am filled with a desire to behold the nature of this worker, the Holy Spirit. But I fall short. The Spirit filled a boy who played upon the harp, and made him a psalmist; on a shepherd and herdsman who pruned sycamore trees, and made him a prophet; on a child given to abstinence, and made him a judge of his elders; on a fisherman, and made him a preacher; on one who persecuted the church, and made him the teacher of the Gentiles; on a tax collector, and made him an Evangelist. What a skilled worker this Spirit is! There is no question of delay in learning what the Spirit teaches us. No sooner does the Spirit touch our minds in regard to anything than we are taught; the Spirit's very touch is teaching. The Spirit changes the human heart in a moment, filling it with light. Suddenly we are no longer what we were; suddenly we are something we never used to be.
Dictionary and topics
Amaziah — Strengthened by Jehovah. (1.) A Levite, son of Hilkiah, of the descendants of Ethan the Merarite (1 Chr. 6:45). (2.) The son and successor of Joash, and eighth king of the separate kingdom of Judah…
Amos — Borne; a burden, one of the twelve minor prophets. He was a native of Tekota, the modern Tekua, a town about 12 miles south-east of Bethlehem. He was a man of humble birth, neither a “prophet nor a…
Prophet — (Heb. nabi, from a root meaning “to bubble forth, as from a fountain,” hence “to utter”, comp. Ps. 45:1). This Hebrew word is the first and the most generally used for a prophet. In the time of…
Shepherd — A word naturally of frequent occurence in Scripture. Sometimes the word “pastor” is used instead (Jer. 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 12:10; 17:16). This word is used figuratively to represent the relation of…
Sycamore — More properly sycomore (Heb. shikmoth and shikmim, Gr. sycomoros), a tree which in its general character resembles the fig-tree, while its leaves resemble those of the mulberry; hence it is called…
Tekoa, Or Tekoah — (a stockade).
Call · .AMOS — .AMOS
Fig Tree, The · Often grew wild — Often grew wild
Prophecy · .Amos — .Amos
Prophets · Mentioned in scripture: Amos — Mentioned in scripture: Amos
Sycamore · General references — General references
Trees · Mentioned in scripture: Sycamore — Mentioned in scripture: Sycamore
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Amos 7:14-15
14. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
14. Et respondit Amos, et dixit ad Amaziam, Non sum Propheta ego, neque ego sum filius Prophetae; quia pecuarius sum ego et colligens (vel, quaerens) sicomoros:
15. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
15. Et sustulit me Jehova a tergo ovium (quum sequerer oves meas; de post oves, ad verbum,) et dixit mihi Jehova, Vade, propheta ad populum meam Israel.
The Prophet Amos first pleads for himself, that he was not at liberty to obey the counsel of Amaziah, bec…
Amos first of all repudiates the insinuation that he practises prophesying as a calling or profession, by which he gets his living. "I am no prophet," sc. by profession, "and no prophet's son," i.e., not a pupil or member of the prophets' schools, one who has been trained to prophesy (on these schools, see the comm. on Sa1 19:24); but (according to my proper calling) a bōqēr, lit., a herdsman of oxen (from bâqâr); then in a broader sense, a herdsman who tends the sheep (צאן), a shepherd; and a bōlēs shiqmı̄m, i.e., one who plucks sycamores or mulberry-figs, and lives upon them. The ἁπ. λεγ. bōlēs is a denom. from the Arabic name for the mulberry-fig, and signifies to gather mulberry…
Amos was not a professional prophet or even a disciple in training. He had no financial incentive to leave his livelihood in order to prophesy. • shepherd: The Hebrew word here is not the same as in 1:1 and is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is related to a word for cattle, suggesting that Amos may have raised cattle as a breeder or herder (see Amos Book Introduction, “The Prophet Amos”). • The sycamore-fig was gathered for cattle feed.
Rashi on Amos 7:14
I am neither a prophet—I am not one of your false prophets, who take pay for prophesying. I do not need all this, and I never behaved in that manner, for I am wealthy and an owner of cattle and property, as Jonathan renders: For I am an owner of cattle and I have sycamores in the plain.
a cattle herder Heb. בוֹקֵר
and an inspector of sycamores Heb. וּבוֹלֵס. One who searches the sycamores to see which one has reached its time to cut in order to increase the branches, and which one is fit for beams, for so was the custom to cut the virgin sycamores. וּבוֹלֵס is like וּבוֹלֵש, a searcher, but Amos was a stammerer, for so they said: Why was he named Amos? Because he was burdened (עָמוּס) by h…
