Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

Introduction

Amos completed his Bible book in about 804 BCE, while living in Judah. He described destruction at the hand of Jehovah for Edom, Moab, Philistia, Tyre, and Syria, nations that abounded in hatred for the God of the Hebrews. But destruction would hit close to home, too. Why?

Consider the people of Judah (southern two-tribe kingdom) and Israel (northern ten-tribe kingdom): Were they pleasing Jehovah? No, they weren't. Due to their apostasy, Amos spoke about residents of Judah deserving of judgement and destruction: "The same lies their forefathers followed have led them astray." (Amos 2:4) Israel faired no better: Disrespect for prophets of Jehovah, rampant immorality, lack of compassion for the poor, and false worship impelled Amos to write about Jehovah's "accounting against the altars of Bethel" and how he would destroy "the houses of ivory." (Amos 3:14, 15)

Did the idol-worshipping Hebrews listen? Did they repent of their obstinacy? Amos wrote, "Get ready to meet your God, O Israel." (Amos 4:12) Judgement meant the northern kingdom would go "into exile beyond Damascus [to Assyria]." (Amos 5:27) "I will no longer pardon them," Jehovah told his prophet. (Amos 8:2) Could Sheol or high mountains shield Israel from exile? (Amos 9:2, 3) Of course not. Jehovah had spoken. But hope still existed for Israel that would fall to Assyria in 740 BCE, and for Judah's Jerusalem that would fall to Babylon in 607 BCE.

Hope? In what way? "I will gather back the captive ones of my people Israel," said Jehovah, "and they will rebuild the desolated cities and inhabit them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit." (Amos 9:14)

An excerpt

7.

O plummet-
Tin knob? Lead?
In the heart,

Measure all things
Vertical,
Upright, gentle,

Mild,
Kind. Measure
The wall. If

It leans, who should
Tear it down?
Who should smash

Its unnatural form?
Who should pass
It through the people?

Of widows
And fatherless boys,
Who should watch

This measuring?
Who should eval-
Ulate the worth of

City gates that lean?
Who should pass the line
From the sun-arc

Through all the red
History books? Who
Should measure

The vertical stature
Of ziggurats,
Of places for think-

Ing men
Where idols in suits
Sputter into micro-

Phones? O plummet-
Pass through the heart
And into the grave.

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).