This commentary examines the book of Amos as it appears in the Hebrew Bible: a collection of messages from a prophet in the 8th century BCE who warned that the Kingdom of Israel would fall because of the wrongs of its wealthy elite. Despite this warning, the book ultimately offers hope for a restored future to the survivors in Judah and Israel. The analysis traces how Amos's original message - now only faintly visible - was reshaped by later scribes after Israel=s fall, leading to the final version likely completed during the Persian period.

This commentary approaches the book of Amos as it is transmitted in the Hebrew Bible: as a collection of the words of a prophet who emerged in the eighth century BCE to proclaim the Kingdom of Israel=s end because of the social and cultic offences of its upper class, but which nonetheless ultimately pronounced a secure future in overwhelming wellness to the catastrophe=s survivors from Judah and Israel. The diachronic analysis retraces the path of the prophetic namesake=s message, which is only still recognizable in contours, through its reworkings at the hands of his first tradents after the end of the Northern Kingdom until its final form, probably from the Persian period.