seen destroyed rather than his authority should be open to dispute.

The fame of Jonah's deliverance appears to have spread far beyond himself: the Greeks added to the labours of Hercules a new wonder, that he was swallowed by the dog sent against him by Neptune, and remained in his body three days without injury. The fable of Arion and the Dolphin also appears borrowed from it, and is pretended to have happened about the same time. Mahomet took many occasions of referring with honour to the memory of this prophet, and inculcated on his followers the duty of paying him respect; he is related to have said,

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It is unworthy of a servant to say I am better than Jonas the prophet." The tomb of Jonah is shown at Mosul, near the site of the ancient Nineveh, and another claiming equal authority at Gath-hepher, or Jotapata; so that whether he returned to his native country after delivering his prophecy is doubtful. We have no further account of him in the sacred writings.

CHAPTER XX.

AMOS. HOSEA.

THE prophet Amos was a native of 810. Tekoa, a small town of Judah, about six

B. C.

*

* By some commentators this is disputed, and it is thought that Amos only retired and lived there, when ordered to quit Israel by the priest of Bethel: but there seems no reason to

miles south of Bethlehem. He was not born to the prophetic office, that is, he was not the son of a prophet, nor was he brought up in those schools of the prophets which had been established by Samuel: but he was, as he himself states, a herdman, and a gatherer of Sycamore fruit; a humble but not degrading occupation in those ages of simple manners, when country pursuits were the usual business of all who were not of the highest rank, or who had not any distinct calling. The sycamore fig produces fruit in all seasons, which grows in clusters like a bunch of grapes, yet not among the leaves, but from the trunk itself, and as the outer skin of this species of fig is thick and hard, it is usual to open it, in order that the fruit may ripen: while engaged in this occupation and in tending his herds, Amos was called by a direct inspiration, and commanded to go to Bethel, and prophesy against its idolatrous worship. He went, and declared that its high places should be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel should be laid waste, and the kingdom be destroyed. On this, Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to the king, Jeroboam the Second, and complained that Amos had conspired against him, and that the land was not suppose he lived at Tekoa only in obedience to this unauthorized mandate, which he otherwise disobeyed in continuing to utter his denunciations against the idolatry and wickedness of Israel: it is more probable that the priest of Bethel commanded him to flee into Judah, as returning back to his native place, and not to come into the kingdom of Israel, which belonged to Jeroboam, and in which he was himself the so-called chief priest.

able to bear his words, for he denounced death to the king, and captivity to the people. "Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there; But prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." Whether the prophet retired at that time into Judah we are not informed, but he continued to utter the denunciations of God against the people of Israel for their multiplied sins, and to foretell their captivity by the Assyrians.

From the words of Amos, we learn the selfish luxury, injustice, fraud and oppression which prevailed in Israel: the rich were effeminate, living only to enjoy themselves, and are described as those that lie on beds or couches of ivory, that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the stalls: they chant to the sound of the viol, drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with rich ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of their nation; therefore the prophet declared, "they shall go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed."*

Again, the oppression of the poor, and the eagerness of the rich to add to their wealth are thus forcibly pourtrayed. "Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail: saying, when will the new moon

* The Jews had adopted the Eastern customs, and lay down on couches round the table to eat.

be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit.* That ye may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat." All these hard dealings with the poor violated the express commandments of the Law, which laid down strict rules for preserving to their use the refuse of the wheat, the gleanings of the fields, and all those small but essential privileges which cause little loss to the affluent, and yet are great alleviations to the wants of the needy and unfortunate. For all these sins joined to their obstinate idolatry, the prophet Amos declares that the judgment of God would descend upon them: their feasts should be turned to mourning, their songs to lamentations, the sun should go down at noon, and the earth should be darkened at clear day. Yet even in the midst of these awful threatenings, the way of repentance is shown to be still open to them, and the prophet breaks forth into fervent exhortations to his countrymen to turn from their vain idols, and seek the LORD, the God who made the heavens, that they may live. Instead of the calves of molten gold, and the carved images, idols of wood and

At the feasts of the new moons, as during the Sabbath, all business was suspended. The ephah was a dry measure used in measuring out corn, equal to three pecks and three pints; the sellers made this small, while the shekel, a coin of the value of 28. 3d., they took care should be full weight.

stone -he bids them, "Seek him that maketh the seven stars, and Orion,* and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."

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Besides the prophecies against the kingdom of Israel, which form the chief part of this book, Amos addressed some to the neighbouring nations to the inhabitants of Damascus, Tyre, Moab, and Ammon, and to the Edomites and Philistines he reproved them for their cruelty to Israel, and foretells that the destruction of this kingdom, to which they looked forward with vindictive exultation, should be to them also as the coming of the whirlwind and the fire; that they should be conquered too, and their palaces and cities should become equally a prey to the invader. These prophecies are in the first two chapters and the last. There are also some relating to Judah, promising that a small remnant should be preserved.

With regard to the style of this prophet, it has been by some pronounced to be rude and unpolished, and as contrasting strongly with the sublime writings of Isaiah, who was his contem

*"The seven stars;" the Pleiades, then a leading constellation, as nearly agreeing with the vernal equinox. Orion is supposed to be not the constellation Orion, but Antares, in the constellation Scorpio, which then nearly agreed with the autumnal equinox; the one introduced the summer, and the other the winter.