by John Dummelow

Introduction

1. The Book and its Hero. This little book stands alone amongst the writings of the prophets with which it is grouped. It does not contain any prophecies, except the message of Jonah to the Ninevites, yet it is placed with the books of Amos and Micah, which contain hardly anything else. It is written in prose, except the Psalm in Jonah 2, and appears at first sight to be a simple narrative of fact, yet it is separated from both the groups of books to which the histories of the OT., Samuel and Kings, Chronicles and Ezra, belong.

The hero of the story lived in the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, in whose time Amos's work was accomplished. According to 2 Kings 14:25, he prophesied the recovery from Syria of the lost border possessions of Israel. That fixes the date of his activity, as there recorded, in the first half of the 8th cent. b.c. He is said to have belonged to Gathhepher, a town of Zebulon, and his grave is still shown in the vicinity of Nazareth.