Amos 7:14

Iwas no prophet, and Iwas no prophet's son i.e. not one of the "sons of the prophets," as the companies, or guilds, of prophets, at Beth-el, Gilgal, and other places, are called in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 2:5; 2 Kings 2:7; 2 Kings 2:15; 2 Kings 4:1; 2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 5:22; 2 Kings 6:1; 2 Kings 9:1). In Semitic languages -son" is often used in the figurative sense of belonging to:thus in Syriac bar naggârê, -a son of the carpenters," means a member of a carpenters" guild. Amos disclaims being a prophet by trade or profession, who might, for instance, have adopted his vocation without any special fitness, or inward call, or who might have even prosecuted it solely with a view to the material advantages accruing from it: no motives such as these had actuated him; he was a simple herdsman, and cultivator of sycomore trees; and he was following the flock, at the moment when the summons came, bidding him be a prophet to Jehovah's people.

an herdman Lit. a cow- (or ox-) herd;but it is very possible, especially in view of the next verse ("from following the flock"), that bôḳçr(בקר) is here an error for nôḳçd(נקד), the rare word used in Amos 1:1 to describe Amos as a keeper of the peculiar breed of sheep called naḳad.

and a dresser (R.V.) of sycomores The sycomore (or "fig-mulberry") not our tree of the same name was a common (Isaiah 9:10; 1 Kings 10:27), but useful tree, which grew abundantly in the mild climate of the Shephçlâh, or Maritime Plain (1 Ki. l.c.; 1 Chronicles 27:28), as it does still in that of the deep Jordan valley: in Egypt, where it also grew (Psalms 78:47), and where it is found still, its wood was used for doors, boxes, coffins, and articles of furniture (Wilkinson-Birch, Anc. Eg., ii. 416). It attains the size of a walnut-tree, has wide-spreading branches, and, on account of its shade, is often planted by the way-side (cf. Luke 19:4). The fruit grows, not on the branches, but on little sprigs rising directly out of the stem, and in clusters like the grape (see the representation in the Dict. of the Bible, s.v.): it is something like a small fig, in shape and size, but insipid and woody in taste. The fruit is infested with an insect (the Sycophaga crassipes), and till the -eye" or top has been punctured, so that the insects may escape, it is not eatable [185]. This operation, it is probable, is what is here alluded to. Bôlçsis a verb derived from balas, which in Ethiopic means a fig, or (sometimes) a sycomore(see Dillmann's Lex. Aeth., col. 487), and in Arabic denotes a species of fig; in Hebrew, it may be inferred that it denoted the similarly shaped fruit of the sycomore, and the derived verb will have signified to deal with, handle, or dressthe fruit of the sycomore. The LXX. having no doubt in view the method of rendering the fruit edible, referred to above, render by κνίζων, prickingor nipping(hence Vulg. vellicans) [186].

[185] Cheyne, ap. W. R. Smith, Proph., Exodus 2, p. 396.

[186] Theophrastus and Dioscorides, in their descriptions of the process, use a compound of the same verb, ἐπικνίζω. Theoph. iv. 2 πέττειν οὐ δύναται ἐὰν μὴ ἐπικνισθῇ · ἀλλʼ ἔχοντες ὄνυχας σιδηρᾶς ἐπικνίζουσιν ἆ δʼ ἆν ἐπικνισθῇ· τεταρταῖα πεττεται : Diosc. i. 180 φέρει δὲ κάρπον μὴ πεπαινόμενον δίχα τοῦ ἐπικνισθῆναι ὄνυχι, ἢ σιδήρφ. Cf. Bochart, Hieroz. ii. 39. (p. 384; 406 Rosenm.).

Tekoa is however much too cold for sycomores to have ever grown there: the tree is not found in Syria above 1000 ft. above the sea, and Tekoa is more than twice as high as that. We must suppose the "naḳad-keepers of Tekoa" (Amos 1:1) to have owned lands in the -wilderness" or pasture-ground, stretching down to the Dead Sea on the east (above, p. 126); and here, in some sufficiently sheltered situation, must have grown the sycomore-trees, which the prophet -dressed."