Rough+Draft+due+Monday,+February+2nd

   > The book of Amos is one of the shortest books in the bible, but on the contrast, (sentence structure) it provides one of the best prophecies of the Old Testament. Amos' prophecies are mainly about destruction, and promises to the Israelites. The destruction that he speaks of can be determined in many ways. Some scholars say that the destruction he speaks of is the destruction of the city of Israel ( Israel is not a city) by the Assyrians. Others say that he speaks of the destruction of God's promises to his people. The promises that are broken are the promises that were made during the Exodus and by Joshua. (What promises to Joshua are being referred to here?) It is said that God's presence would leave Israel and the Israelites would be left alone. Thus, the Assyrians would be able to overtake the Israelites. Amos, although he talks a lot about destruction, ( Be sure to consistently use past tense; you used present tense in previous phrase.) also was one of the first to prophesize about God's salvation history. Amos was the prophet that like many others, said that the Davidic line would be revived (Amos 7:11-15). Of course, his prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus. Amos also is ahead of the time he lives in, for he is one of the first to proclaim that Jesus is the champion of the poor. (How does he do this since Jesus was not born for over 700 years after the time of Amos.) He is also true in this fact, (phrase not grammatically correct) but this angers the very rich Israelites, and because of it, he is exiled from Jerusalem. (check corrections. I accidentally changed the font color for the entire paragraph.) The book of Amos actually has two parts to it. The first part, or the original writings, are broken up into four sub-categories. The four sub-categories are three judgment speeches, three collections of woe sayings, four visions, and oracles against the nations. The second part of the book of Amos is the Secondary Writings, which consists of three other sub-categories. These are judgment speeches, another visionary story, and then the book ends with saying that there will be a continuation of the Davidic line. > When Amos was preaching of Gods (possessive) prophecies, he was a middle-aged man. There are two predictions on his state of wealth. First, since the quality of his writing is so fine, scholars predict that he came from a very wealthy family. But, others say, because of references in the book of Amos, that he was very poor. For example, Amos was a shepard, but because he could barely support himself, he took on a second job of a sycamore tree dresser. There are other reasons that support this fact, such as his interactions with bears and lions. Amos was born in Tekoa, a city ten miles south of Jerusalem, but his made his prophecies mainly in the lands of Samaria and Bethel, after being excommunicated from Jerusalem. His name, interestingly, means burden. He prophesized during the reign of King Jeroboam II. > The time of Amos' prophecy is some time before 750 B.C. Scholars know this because King Uzziah's son Jotham is not mentioned and he reigned from 750-731 B.C.(bibletools.org). He prophesied in Israel at the great cult center of Bethel. The key actors in Amos' prophecies were King Jeroboam II of Israel and King Uzziah of Judah. The way that Jeroboam II played a key role in Amos' life is because scholars believe that he is the person that ended it. (passive voice, revise previous sentence.) No historical accounts have backed this suggestion. (Incorporate previous sentence into the one before it.) King Uzziah of Judah only played a significant character in the life of Amos because he was the King of the society in the same country that Amos resided in. Israel was divided into two territories, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. As stated before, Israel was run by King Jeroboam II and the kingdom of Judah by King Uzziah however his prophecy only took place in the kingdom of Israel. (don't need to repeat points about the kings but should make clear that Amos does preach to the N. Kingdom._ Major themes of Amos' prophecy were that actions that people act out have consequences. This is noticed in the way he speaks. (What is noticed?) For example when he says "so, because, and therefore" so frequently. (Previoius sentence is incomplete.) Another topic that he touches on a lot is the justice that God entails. (Review word choice. Entails doesn't seem to fit here.) For example Amos 5:15 says, "Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate;" he shows that the people should give their justice to God. (Not sure what you mean by giving their justice to God.) The major message that Amos attempts to get across is that to receive a lifestyle promised in the covenant, they must live by the covenant. > In the book of Amos there really isn't ( no contractions) much foretelling or manifestation that Amos preaches during his time being a prophet, nor is his prophecies mentioned that much in the New Testament. Amos has really never prophesized the coming of Jesus or anything else in the New Testament for that matter. (You might want to check that again, he does preach of the rising up of again of leadership from the House of David.)  He did prophesize other things that happened in the Old Testament though, such as Assyria marching into Israel. That is one of the things he foretold, and another is when he foretold to the people of Israel that there would be a forty year period in which there would be trial and testing from God. Both of these events really did happen to the Israelites. Amos’ prophecies aren’t really mentioned that much in the New Testament. (You already stated this.) One time there is a small reference to Amos in the book of Acts. The verse Acts 7:42 is an exact quotation of Amos 5:25. ( Why? What does it say? Why does Acts refer back to Amos?) Those small numbers of times are the only few times that Amos foretells anything or is mentioned of in the New Testament. > There are some ways we can apply the teachings of Amos to our daily lives today for both believers and non believers. (Be sure to write in third person. This paragraph is written in first person plural -- revise it.) One way we can apply his teachings is that when bad things happen to us it’s usually because we did something else bad. We can learn that from him because in the beginning of Amos he prophesized that destruction would rain upon all those countries that had messed with Israel. We can also apply the injustices in our world to his too. One injustice that might mirror the situation of Amos is the terrorist attacks in our world and the attacks on the Israelites in his world. Those attacks may have happened to warn us of the danger of our sins and remind us of the process of deuteronomistic history. ( Be careful of portraying our God as vindictive. This would not fit with the Christian understanding of God.) Transition sentences needed from paragraph to paragraph so that a smooth flow is created. Paragraphs should be fuller, more sentences that dig deeper into the topic. Right now the paper is very choppy.