Amos--odds and ends of commentary

fruit of a sycamore fig tree

Amos was a profitable herdsman and grower of sycamore figs from the Judean town of Tekoa.   He was in charge of shepherds and large numbers of livestock. He prophesied under the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah.  Under these kings, both enjoyed a season of expansion and prosperity second only to Solomon's era.  Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea:

“A flurry of prophetic activity was divinely inaugurated in the eighth century B.C., mainly to warn the northern kingdom of an impending destruction if she did not repent and reverse her way of life.” -Walter Kaiser

His name means "burden bearer" or "load carrier." 

Amos was also a bit of a Cincinnatus or Washington; he left his livelihood to pursue God's specific call on his life for a particular season:

"Unlike other prophets, Amos was not a man whose life was devoted to hearing and speaking the Word of the Lord. He was no product of the "schools of prophets," nor a professional "seer." He left his flock for a limited period, at the command of God, to deliver a specific message at Bethel. That done, he presumably returned to his sheep-tending at Tekoa."
—Herbert F. Stevenson

Although he was from the Southern Kingdom, he prophesied to the Northern Kingdom.  He was profoundly inspired in his prophecy by his natural surroundings.  The imagery in his prophecy comes from nature.

The first chapter conveys God's judgement against 8 kingdoms.

From the Believer's Bible Commentary:

"Each pronouncement of judgment is introduced by the words, "For three transgressions . . . and for four." Baxter explains this Hebrew idiom for us:The phrase is not to be taken arithmetically, to mean a literal three and then four, but idiomatically, as meaning that the measure was full, and more than full; the sin of these people had overreached itself; or, to put it in an allowable bit of modern slang, they had "gone one too many," they had "tipped the scale."" -BBC

"Amos was of them of whom it is written, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.” Through all his hard life this shepherd had kept his mind open and his conscience quick, so that when the Word of God came to him he knew it, as fast as he knew the roar of the lion across the moor. Certainly there is no habit which so much as this of watching facts with a single eye and a responsible mind is indispensable alike in the humblest duties and in the highest speculations of life. When Amos gives those naive illustrations of how real the voice of God s to him, we receive them as the tokens of a man, honest and awake." -Geo. Adam Smith, D. D

"The Lord wanted their loving obedience, not their acts of worship. Loving religious activity is not the same as loving God." -Constable's Notes