If we take Uzziah's reign to be 790-740 BC, and the reign of Jeroboam to be 783 743 BC, the date for the prophecy of Amos would be about 750 BC, conceding that it could not have been at the beginning of Jeroboam's reign because Amos indicates that his king had already overcome his enemies and regained his lost territory (6:2-13, compared with 2 Kings 14:25). The Assyrians would soon be threatening Palestine. Amos" time was a time of prosperity and wealth. Jeroboam II of Israel had overcome the Syrians and recovered the original territory of his kingdom. Uzziah, king of Judah, had subdued the Edomites, Philistines, and Ammonites. He raised a powerful army and fortified Jerusalem. Israel, secure from their enemies and strong in their own resources, was far from expecting their destruction. Prosperity in both kingdoms had produced self pride, luxurious, indulgent living, selfishness, and oppression of the poor. In the northern kingdom of Israel these sins were increased by the calf worship, which was still practiced there. Amos was sent to Bethel, the center of this idolatry, to rebuke their sins and announce the approach of God's judgment. Faithful to his calling, Amos went to a people who had been highly favored by God, but who were becoming unspeakably wicked and ungrateful. We might divide the book of the prophecy of Amos this way: The Approaching Judgment (Ch. 1-2), Prophecies Concerning Israel (Ch. 3 6), Sights or Visions (Ch. 7 9).1.
Verse one begins Amos" vision of the ripe fruit. This is the forth vision in a series of five. "The approach of the threatened ruin is represented by a basket of summer-fruit."2 The "summer fruit" seems to be significant in two separate ways. The first of these is that the fruit being fruit of the summer would not keep long and would spoil soon. This shows that God's wrath will occur in the near future just as the fruit will spoil in the near future.