Amos

A sheepherder and grower of fig trees who became an Old Testament prophet. He lived in Tekoa, a few miles south of Jerusalem in Judah. His preaching and prophesying, however, were mostly in Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel. In his prophecy, he insisted that people should be treated fairly. The rich people should have used their wealth to help the poor. Instead, they used their power to make poor people even poorer.

We don’t know whether the people listened and responded to Amos’s prophecy. In the end, he was told by the priest of Israel, Amaziah, to go home to his own land (Judah) and do his prophesying there!