Amos 1
Amos 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Amos in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Amos, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter contains the prophecies of God's judgments on Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon. Text. The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 15 verses. Textual witnesses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which  includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q78 (4QXII; 75–50 BCE) with extant verse 1?; 4Q82 (4QXII; 25 BCE) with extant verses 3‑7, 9–15; 5Q4 (5QAmos; 50 BCE–50 CE) with extant verses 2–‑5 and Wadi Murabba'at (MurXII; 75–100 CE) with extant verses 5–15 There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; formula_1 ; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; formula_1; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; formula_1; 6th century). Structure. NKJV groups this chapter into: Title (1:1–2). Verse 2. Cross reference: Eighth century earthquake. Creationist geologist Steven A. Austin and colleagues suggested in 2000 that widely separated archaeological excavations in the countries of Israel and Jordan contain late Iron Age (Iron IIb) architecture bearing damage from a great earthquake. Earthquake debris at six sites (Hazor, Deir 'Alla, Gezer, Lachish, Tell Judeideh, and 'En Haseva), is tightly confined stratigraphically to the middle of the 8th century BC, with dating errors of ~30 years. This particular  seismic event is further confirmed in 2019 by geologists studying layers of sediment on the floor of the Dead Sea. Amos of Tekoa delivered a speech at the Temple of the Golden Calf in the city of Bethel in the northern kingdom of Israel just "two years before the earthquake" (), in the middle of eighth century BC when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam II was king of Israel. Amos spoke of the land being shaken (), houses being smashed (), altars being cracked (), and even the Temple at Bethel being struck and collapsing (). The Amos' Earthquake impacted Hebrew literature immensely . After the gigantic earthquake, no Hebrew prophet could predict a divine visitation in judgment without alluding to an earthquake. Just a few years after the earthquake, Isaiah wrote about the "Day of the Lord" when everything lofty and exalted will be abased at the time when the Lord "ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (). Then, Isaiah saw the Lord in a temple shaken by an earthquake (). Joel repeats the motto of Amos: "The Lord also will roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem," and adds the seismic theophany imagery "the heavens and the earth shall shake" (; compare  ). After describing a future earthquake and panic during the "Day of the Lord" at Messiah's coming to the Mount of Olives, Zechariah says, "Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah" (). The panic caused by Amos' Earthquake must have been the topic of legend in Jerusalem, because Zechariah asked his readers to recall that terrifying event 230 years later. In 2005 seismologist Nicholas Ambraseys reviewed the literature on historical earthquakes in Jerusalem and specifically the 'Amos' earthquake. He states that "Modern writers date the earthquake to 759  BC and assign to it a magnitude of 8.2, with an intensity in Jerusalem between VIII and IX." He believes that such an earthquake "should have razed Jerusalem to the ground" and states that there is no physical or textual evidence for this. Discussing Zechariah's mention of an earthquake, he suggests that it was a 5th or 4th century insertion and discusses various versions of the passage which describe the event in different ways. He suggests that the differences may be due to a confused reading of the Hebrew words for “shall be stopped up” ("ve-nistam"), and “you  shall flee" ("ve-nastem")" and that "by adopting the latter reading as more plausible in relation to the natural phenomenon described, it is obvious that there is no other explanation than a large landslide, which may or may not had been triggered by this or by another earthquake." He also states that a search for changes in the ground resembling those described in Zechariah revealed "no direct or indirect evidence that Jerusalem was damaged." Nonetheless, this earthquake appears to be the largest ever documented on the Dead Sea transform fault zone during the last four millennia. Amos 1 Amos 1