served through the social relationships of men. He affirms it in the great word that is the keynote of his prophecy, a permanent summons to every human society, and a rebuke to any religion that would serve God and forget men,

Let justice roll down as waters,

And righteousness as an ever-flowing stream (5. 24).

85. THE CONTRIBUTION OF AMOS

The message of Amos is limited. He declares only the one principle-the doom of the social order that is unjust. The beautiful closing paragraph of the book is perhaps the work of those later editors who sought always to balance the earlier prophecies of judgment with the words of hope. But Amos's rugged word of doom is a good one for our modern day. We too have a prosperity unexampled. We enjoy a peace that has enabled us to grow rich. The wealth and luxury of our cities would put the little splendors of Bethel and Samaria into sorry comparison, and we too "have not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." We have "put far away the evil day" and have allowed among us those "that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy from their right." Our religion has too often been carried on with mere magnificence and as if it had nothing to do with social justice. We have not even failed of the parallel that we have commanded the prophets, "Prophesy not," for who is the bold man who dares speak to-day for social justice? We do not expect the collapse of our modern society, but we may well heed the message that reminds us that the foundations of an enduring social order are justice. We may believe that our God, like the God of Amos, will never forget the works of oppression.

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Read 2 Kings 13 and 14. Consider what conditions in Israel are there described.

2.

Read Amos 7. 10-15. What information is there given about the prophet?

3. What does 3. 1-8 add to our knowledge of Amos and his

reasons for preaching?

4. Consider the meaning of the five visions, 7. 1-9, 8. 1-3, 9. 1-4 A lively imagination is needed to see these pictures and their symbolic meaning.

5. One of the greatest of Amos's oracles is 5. 18 to 6. 14, which is a literary unit in three parts. Read the first part, 5. 18-27, and note the prophet's contempt for the religiousness of the people.

6. Note the woe on the nobles (6. 1-7). What social situation is there depicted?

7. What social conditions are described in 4. 1-3? 5. 4-17?

8. What social conditions are indicated in 8. 4-14?

9. Read 9. 7-10. Note that Jehovah is represented as the God of all the nations. What is the nature of the predicted doom? 10. What would we think of such a man as Amos to-day?

CHAPTER XXII

HOSEA

HOSEA is not generally thought of so much as a social prophet because of the intense religiousness of his message. Amos was also religious, but his word from Jehovah had to do almost entirely with the divine demand for just relations between men, while Hosea was intensely concerned with the broken relations between Israel and Jehovah-a broken faith, a broken loyalty. Yet it was still the social evils that gave meaning to Hosea's message. The breach between the people and Jehovah was so evident because of the social anarchy of that terrible time. If Amos had to tell a smug and contented people rejoicing in prosperity that their social fabric was really rotten and was tottering to its fall, Hosea had to call a broken, troubled society back to its religious loyalty as the only hope of political and social salvation. Even the Bull worship which Hosea so strongly denounced was not irreligious alone. Other prophets had tolerated it because it was nominal Jehovah worship, but Hosea saw its utter paganism, its moral worthlessness, and stigmatized it as fundamentally the old Baal worship with all the degrading sensuality of that nature religion.

§ I. THE POLITICAL SITUATION

Hosea is so far a social prophet that we cannot at all understand him except against the background of the political conditions of the time. Those conditions were terrible. Jehu, a usurper, had come to the throne through rivers of blood. His dynasty went out in assassination. The blood of Jezreel was avenged (1. 4). It was the son of the proud Jeroboam II who reigned only half a year before Shallum

slew him (2 Kings 15. 8-12). This conspirator sat on the throne a month when Menahem slew him and established his reign in terrorism (vv. 13-16). He reigned ten years and died a natural death, but his son after only two years was murdered by the commander of the army, Pekah, who in turn was destined himself to die at the hands of the Assyrian overlord from whom he revolted. Well might Hosea say of this wretched travesty upon government, "I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath" (13. 11).

The world powers were upon Israel now. No more was there safety during periods of Assyrian weakness. TiglathPileser III, Shalmanezer IV, Sargon, were the mighty tyrants who successively battered the poor little Hebrew kingdom into the dust. And as if they were not enough, there were the Egyptian Pharaohs coming into Palestinian politics, holding out elusive hopes, and flattering Israel into thinking that she could make alliance upon equal terms with the Nile empire against the might of Nineveh.

Hosea looked upon it all with that detachment which moral insight and purity of motive give. He saw the folly of the petty policies and beheld ever nearer the dreadful day of doom.

§ 2. THE SOCIAL SITUATION

The prosperity that Amos saw in Bethel and Samaria had, of course, departed, but the end was not yet, and Israel still believed herself secure. Menahem bowed before the Assyrian storm and secured immunity by the payment of a huge tribute, which, in the first instance at all events, he levied upon his nobles (2 Kings 15. 20). Doubtless their luxury was considerably diminished, but there is no reason to suppose that there was any lightening of the burdens upon the people or any attempt to administer the laws with justice. The basket of summer fruit had lost even the appearance of lusciousness and was a pitiful exhibition of

decay. But there was enough trade to produce some wealth, and it could still be said of Israel, “He is a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to defraud” (12.7).

The rulers who succeeded one another were too insecure in their tenure of the throne to be able to put down the rude violence that inevitably arises in such troublous times (10. 3). The nobles threw aside all pretense of social order (5. 10). Thieves and robbers ravaged the land (7.1). The priests were no better than such marauders (6.9).

Sensuality, ever the sin of the Oriental peoples, and of Israel, became increasingly shameless. The orgies of the popular festivals gave a religious sanction to this debauchery (413). What possibility of a wholesome family life could such a state of things hold out? (4. 14.) It was in this darkest phase of Israel's social evils that Hosea found his inspiration to speak his deathless message to his people.

83. THE TRAGIC EXPERIENCE OF HOSEA

The sensuality of the times struck Hosea in his own home. A man of tenderest affection, he had married Gomer in all honor, and hope of the purest family life. She wronged him, left his home with a paramour, shamed him before the people, and wounded him in the deepest interests of his life. He saw the social corruption of Israel epitomized and felt it as no one but a strong, free man could feel it. He might easily have cast off Gomer and been rid of her. He might then have denounced the vices of his nation with the bitterness that would have been so naturally the product of his personal experience. But Hosea found a feeling in his heart other than bitterness-pity for the foolish, misguided woman, the sense of deep responsibility for her who had

The first three chapters of Hosea have always constituted a difficulty to interpreters. The explanation here given is that which has been generally adopted by modern scholars. The literal view, that Hosea married a depraved woman in order to show Israel the awfulness of the relation between herself and Jehovah, is ably set forth by J. M. P. Smith in the Biblical World, August, 1913.