one of the twelve minor prophets, and a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. He was a native of Tekoa, about six miles south of Bethlehem, inhabited chiefly by shepherds, to which class he belonged, being also a dresser of sycamore-trees. The period during which he filled the prophetic office was of short duration, unless we suppose that he uttered other predictions which are not recorded. It is stated expressly that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake (Amos i. 1). As Jeroboam died in the fifteenth year of Uzziah's reign, this earthquake, to which there is an allusion in Zechariah (xiv. 5), could not have happened later than the seventeenth year of Uzziah: and as Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporaries for about fourteen years, from B.C. 798 to 784, the latter of these dates will mark the period when Amos prophesied.

The allusions in the writings of this prophet are numerous and varied; they refer to natural objects, to historical events, to agricultural or pastoral employments and occurrences, and to national institutions and customs.

Some peculiar expressions occur; such as "cleanness of teeth," a parallelism to "want of bread," iv. 6.; and in the orthography there are a few peculiarities.

The canonicity of the Book of Amos is amply supported both by Jewish and Christian authorities. Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud include it among the minor prophets. It is also in the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the sixth canon of the Council of Laodicea. Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho (§ 22), quotes a considerable part of the fifth and sixth chapters. There are two quotations from it in the New Testament: the first (v. 25, 26) by the proto-martyr Stephen, Acts vii. 42; the second (ix. 11) by the apostle James, Acts xv. 16.