Amos: Structure

In the book of Amos two parts can be distinguished: Amos 1–6 and Amos 7–9.

In the first part God is the most important speaker.
He utters a number of judgements about the nations that surround Israel. These prophecies begin with the fixed formula, “The people of … have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them.”
After that the prophecies concentrate on Israel itself, with a few allusions to Judah. Because Israel is God’s people, he will punish the people for their faults.

In the second part the character of Amos plays a bigger role as the narrator of visions, with verbs in the first person singular.
In Amos 7:10-17 there is a short story about an attempt to chase him out of Israel and send him back to Judah.
The book ends with a prophecy of salvation for Israel: a peaceful and prosperous future is announced under a king from the fallen house of David.

The superscriptions of Amos, Hosea, Zephaniah and Micah are all almost the same. This suggests that Amos was earlier one of a small collection of four prophetic books which eventually were all included in the book of the Twelve Prophets.