Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 171 Reviews Nevertheless, Rofe's analyses are often very sharp and, indeed, brilliant. Again and again, one is convinced-or, at least, almost convinced-of his position, even when it runs counter to one's prior notions. The study should, and undoubtedly will, leave a heavy mark on the subsequent discussion of prophetic narratives. Martin J. Buss Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322 AMOS OF ISRAEL: A NEW INTERPRETATION. By Stanley N. Rosenbaum. Pp. xii + 129. Macon, GA: Mercer University, 1990. Cloth. This monograph attempts a new characterization of the man Amos and discusses the implications of that characterization for understanding the biblical book that bears his name. Chapter topics include political history of eighth century Israel, Amos's origin, his occupations, the social situation in Samaria, the unity and authenticity of the book of Amos, and the dialect of the book's language. A concluding chapter assembles the results of these earlier chapters into the following reconstruction. Amos was a native of the northern kingdom of Israel and a middle-level official in its government, a district inspector of herds and sycamores. He was, consequently, welleducated and in the upper-class stratum of his society, but he felt for the lower classes and brooded over the corruption that greedy capitalists brought into Israel. Then, some time within five years of 760 B.C.E., his brooding exploded in a twenty-minute harangue against his native country. Afterwards, he left Israel for self-imposed exile in Judah, settling in Tekoa where he wrote down his words in the same northern Hebrew dialect in which he had spoken them. When the Jehu dynasty was overthrown, as Amos had prophesied, members of his "guild" of C"Pl joined Amos in Tekoa. After the fall of Israel, they concluded that God had called him to warn Israel. His circle of disciples widened. Even in Babylonian exile they remembered his words in their original northern dialect and were instrumental in having them included in the canon, although by that time Amos' national origin and date had been forgotten. Rosenbaum contends that the actual evidence linking Amos with the South is scant and that 1:2 means only that Amos was known in Tekoa, not Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 172 Reviews that he was born there. He cites the well-known objection to Tekoa as Amos' home-that sycamores do not grow at its altitude. He funher holds that Amaziah's words to Amos in 7:12 (iiTII" f'1R 'R l' m:I l' nrn) indicate Amos' northern origin. Amaziah does not tell him to return (:nrD) to Judah but to flee, n'~ meaning "to escape jurisdiction to which one is normally subject." Amaziah also accuses Amos of treason (,rDp) which implies that the government of Israel is his own. The fact that Amos never condemns calf or bull iconography Rosenbaum regards as "incontrovertible proof that Amos was a Northerner." Rosenbaum also considers the language of the book of Amos to be full of forms that betray a Nonhern origin. Amos' principal message, according to Rosenbaum, is directed against those in the upper class who defraud small freeholders of their land in order to raise wine grapes and profit from export trade. Rosenbaum points to a number of structuring devices and reuse of vocabulary, especially in wordplays, as marks of a single, skillful author. His assumptions are that nothing in the book could not have been written by Amos and that any editing was done "in living memory" of its namesake. He also proposes that only those verses which contain three or more words, excluding proper names, not found elsewhere in Amos be considered as possible secondary additions. In the end, he accepts only 1:1 and 3:7 with any certainty as secondary. The final pericope of Amos (9:11-15), which is almost universally understood as a later addition, Rosenbaum interprets in the light of the defeat and capture of Amaziah of Judah by Joash of Israel (c. 792 B.C.E. [2 Kgs 14:11-14; 2 Chr 25:17-24]). The rise of the "fallen booth of David" in Amos 9 is not a prophecy but a...