b. Vision reports concerning the end of Israel (7:1-9:4)

Five vision reports constitute the main elements of the text (7:1-3, 4-6, 7-9; 8:1-3; 9:1-4). Between the third and fourth visions is a narrative of a conflict between Amos and Amaziah, priest of Bethel (7:10-17); a series of oracles about death and famine (8:4-14) separate the fourth and fifth visions. The entire sequence contributes to the theme of death and the end of Israel.

The vision sequence manifests an internal development that escalates progressively from Yahweh’s forgiveness of Israel at the beginning (7:1-3) to a horrifying portrayal of Yahweh as the relentless death-dealing pursuer from which not even a remnant of Israel can escape at the end (9:1-4). In the first vision (7:1-3) intercession by the prophet leads Yahweh to forgive and to cancel the catastrophe announced in the vision. In the second vision (vv.4-6), the prophet’s intercession results once more in the repeal of the punishment, but this time he cannot, as previously, dare to beg God to forgive (v.2) but only to stop (v.5). By the third vision (vv.7-9), the prophet no longer asks God to relent. There is only the report of Yahweh placing a plumbline in the midst of his people Israel to decide “whether Israel is stable or ready to be torn down” (Wolff, Joel and Amos, 301), much as a builder uses such an instrument to test a wall. One can only assume that Israel fails to pass the test. The fourth vision involves a play on words: the basket of ripe fruit (Heb. qayis) sounds like the Hebrew word qes (“end”). For a second time there is no cancellation of punishment; the end comes upon Israel (8:2), accompanied by death and mourning (v.3). The final vision (9:1-4) describes Yahweh as personally present at the altar, ordering that it be struck so that the capitols will collapse on the heads of the people. Persons who should happen to survive will be pursued relentlessly by God himself, with the aim that no survivors be left. The vision sequence, beginning with Yahweh’s forgiveness and repeal of punishment and ending with the merciless pursuit and total slaughter of Israel, portrays a change in God’s relationship with Israel. Just as Yahweh’s chastisements, originally designed to provoke repentance (4:11), lead to a new divine act (v.12), so also Yahweh’s attitude toward Israel changes from willingness to forgive (7:2) to a time of irreversible judgment (7:7-9; 8:1-3; 9:1-4).

The narrative appended to the third vision (7:10-17) reports an attempt on the part of Amaziah, priest of Bethel, to compel Amos to return to Judah because of his condemnation of Jeroboam, king of Israel: “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel” (vv.12-13). Amos responds that he is not a professional prophet but rather a shepherd who was called by Yahweh to prophesy not to Judah, but to Israel (vv.14-15). Because Amos has been sent by his God, the true conflict is not between Amaziah and Amos but between Amaziah and Yahweh. Amaziah is indeed one who, in the words of 2:12, commanded the prophets, “You must not prophesy.”

The oracles appended to the fourth vision (8:4-14) build upon the language of death in 8:1-3. Because of Israel’s oppression of the poor, Yahweh swears that he will never forget these misdeeds (vv.4-7). Indeed, there will be an earthquake, and all the land’s inhabitants will mourn (v.8). There will be an eclipse in which God will turn festivals into mourning and songs into lamentation (vv.9-10). The theme of death continues in vv.11-14 with the proclamation, “They will fall never to rise again” (v.14; cf. 5:2). But the theme of death is combined with the imagery of drought and famine. Yahweh will send a famine, not of bread or of thirst, but of hearing the words of the Lord (vv.11-12). Thus Israel’s death is not only a calamity of military defeat and exile but also a spiritual loss of the life-sustaining words of Yahweh.