Amnon Amos the second son of Lot through his inces- tuous relationship with his younger daughter. [Gen. 19:38; Num. 21:2.4; Deut. 2:19, 20, 37; Josh. 13:10; Judg. 3; 13; 1 Sam. 11; 14; 2 Sam. 8; 10; n ; 12; 23; 1 Kgs. n ; 14; 2 Kgs. 23; 24; 1 Chr. n; 18; 19; 20; 2 Chr. 12; 20; 24; 27; Ezra 9:1; Neh. 2; 4; 13; Ps. 83:7; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 9; 27; 40; 41; 49; Ezek. 21; 25; Dan. 11:41; Amos 1:13; Zeph. 2:8, 9] Amnon (Heb. 'trustworthy') 1. c. 10 cen- tury BC . King David's eldest son who seduced his half-sister Tamar and was killed in revenge by her brother Absa- lom. [2 Sam. 3:2; 13:1-39; 1 Chr. 3:1] 2. date unknown. Son of Shimon and a leader of the tribe of Judah. [1 Chr. 4:20] Amok (Heb. 'deep') 6 century BC . Head of a family of priests who returned to Judah with Zerubbabel from exile in Babylon. [Neh. 12:7, 20] Amon (Heb. 'trustworthy') /. date un- known. Amon was the local god for the city of Thebes. When Thebes conquered the city states of Lower Egypt in about 1700 BC , Amon became the national god of the Egyptians. He was regarded as the god of fertility and later the sun- god. [Jer. 46:25] 2. see AMI c. 9 century BC. Governor of Samaria, he arrested and imprisoned the prophet Micaiah after he had foretold the disas- ter that would befall King Ahab of Israel at Ramoth-gilead. [1 Kgs. 22:26; 2 Chr. 18:25] 4. Fifteenth king of Judah after the mon- archy split, he reigned 642-40 BC . Amon was the son of King Manasseh of Judah and of Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He succeeded his father at the age o f twenty-two, and continued the idolatrous practices that had marked Manasseh's reign. After two years on the throne he was assassinated by some of his officials. The conspirators were in turn put to death by the people, and Amon's eight-year-old son Josiah suc- ceeded to the throne. [2 Kgs. 21:18—26; 1 Chr. 3:14; 2 Chr. 33:20-25; Jer. 1:2; 25:3; Zeph. 1:1] Amorites (Bab. 'westerners') A power- ful people in pre-biblical times, they originated from and ruled in north-west Mesopotamia. Some began infiltrating into Canaan in the early centuries of the 2nd millennium BC , and by the time Joshua appeared they were well en- trenched in the land. There was thus considerable fighting between them and the Israelites. Many of them remained after Joshua's conquest. In the time of King Solomon, they were made 'a forced levy of slaves' (1 Kgs. 9:21). [Gen. 10; 14; 15; 48; Exod. 3; 23; 33; 34; Num. 13; 21; 22; 32; Deut. 1; 2; 3; 4; 7; 20; 31; Josh. 2; 3; 5; 7; 9; 10; n ; 12; 13; 2 4; Judg- 1; 3; 6; 10; 11; 1 Sam. 7:14; 2 Sam. 21:2; 1 Kgs. 459; 21; 1 Chr. 1:14; 2 Chr. 8:7; Ezra 9:1; Neh. 9:8; Ps. 135:11; 136:19; Amos 2:9, 10] Amos (Heb. 'burden') c. 775-50 BC. First of the literary prophets. Amos lived in Tekoa, a village in the Judean hills about six miles south of Bethlehem. Uzziah ruled at the time in the southern kingdom of Judah and Jero- boam 11 in the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos was a sheep-farmer, and also gathered the fruit of the sycamore tree (a kind offig).His first appearance as a prophet was at a festival in the town of Bethel, in the kingdom of Israel. His opening words thundered a grim warning to the merrymakers: 'The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shep- herds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.' (Amos 1:2) For the Hebrew kingdoms, this was a period of relative peace and prosperity. What Amos saw were the negative re- sults of this relaxation: luxurious living Amos Amos for the rich, exploitation of the poor, loose moral standards, corruption in public life, and religious observance based on ritual rather than real piety. It was against these abuses that he was called upon to preach. He also sensed that the Hebrews were blind to the Assyrian danger looming up far to the north: 'Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria.' (Amos 6:1) It is hardly surprising that Amos's fierce attack on the establishment was resented. After his first appearance at Bethel, the local priest sent a complaint to King Jeroboam accusing the preacher of sedition. 'Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, "Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land."' (Amos 7:10, 11) Apparently the authorities failed to take action, and the priest himself tried to persuade Amos to leave. 'O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there.' (Amos 7:12) (These words implied that Amos was one of the wandering soothsayers who supported themselves from the credulous.) Amos replied indignantly that he was not a prophet nor a prophet's son, but had been called by the Lord from his own regular occupa- tions. He repeated his warning in even fiercer terms: 'Therefore thus says the Lord: "Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daugh- ters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parcelled out by line; and you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'" (Amos 7:17) The Book of Amos may be divided into three main parts. The first two chapters deal with the lord's punishment of the nations. He si.uis will) the neighbouring states of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. Their crimes are those of war and violence. The prophet then moves closer to home. The people of the south, Judah, will be punished 'be- cause they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes' (Amos 2:4). Finally comes the turn of the citizens of Israel to whom he is speaking. Here Amos's wrath rises to a climax and the catalogue of their sins becomes specific and vivid. They are profane, immoral and above all callous and inhuman towards their fellow-men - '... they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes' (Amos 2:6). The next three chapters are warning sermons, each starting with the phrase 'Hear this word ...'. In the remaining chapters, the threats of judgment are built around concrete symbols: the de- vouring grasshoppers, the consuming fire, the builder's plumbline, the basket of summer fruit and the smitten sanctuary. In the last few verses of the Book, Amos holds out the hope of a new begin- ning after the destruction he has proph- esied. '"Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," says the Lord.' (Amos 9:8) 'In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild i t as i n the days of old.' (Amos 9:11) Amos the sheep farmer is usually pic- tured as a blunt rustic, compared with intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jer- emiah. It is true that he is familiar with the sights and sounds of country life. Yet at the same time he reveals a wide knowledge of contemporary events, a grasp of political and social issues, and literary skill of a high order. In the evolving theology of the Old Testament, Amos makes a great leap