Keywords

covenants, kinship, Book of Amos, Old Testament

Document Type

Article

Abstract

At the outset of the book of Amos, the Old Testament prophet captures the attention of the ancient Israelites when he condemns the inhabitants of Tyre, a port city north of Israel often used synonymously to reference the Phoenicians, for not remembering “the brotherly covenant” (Amos 1:9), or as it appears in a different translation, “the covenant of kinship” (1:9 NRSV). [1] The Israelites easily recognized and eagerly accepted this condemnation because they were the victims of the covenantal breach from one of their neighboring regional powers. [2] Amos, however, did not travel from the southern kingdom of Judah to speak comfort to the ears of the Israelites. Instead, the prophet uses the condemnation of Tyre, as well as the condemnations of other surrounding nations cited in Amos 1–2, as a subtle and persuasive introduction to the condemnation he was about to pronounce upon Israel’s social elite for their own forgetfulness of the covenant of kinship toward their fellow Israelites.