Old Testament
Amos, a shepherd called from the flock, thunders against a prosperous, complacent Israel that keeps up a busy religious life while trampling the poor. He opens by circling judgment around the surrounding nations for their atrocities, then snaps the trap shut on Israel itself — whose sin is not foreign cruelty but injustice toward its own needy, 'selling the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.' His message is that worship and justice are inseparable: God 'hates' their feasts and songs while injustice reigns, and demands instead, 'let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.' Election brings greater accountability, not exemption; the day of the LORD the complacent long for will be 'darkness, not light'; and the worst judgment of all is 'a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.' Yet, like the other prophets, Amos ends in hope: God will 'raise up the tent of David that is fallen' and gather 'all the nations called by my name' — a promise James cites as fulfilled in the gospel reaching the Gentiles. Amos calls God's people to a devotion that does justice.
Open Amos in the Atlas →Work through Amos in the Atlas — passage by passage. Read the text, test your understanding, discover its themes, and watch how it connects across Scripture.