Exploring Exodus themes in the book of Amos

Abstract

There is little doubt that the exodus event is regarded as a most important turning point for Israel's understanding of itself. The aim of this article is to investigate the occurrence of the Exodus tradition in the book of Amos. Once the occurrence of the exodus tradition has been determined the second aim is to establish the function of the exodus tradition in the book. This is done by providing the reader with cursory overview of the exodus event as it is told in Exodus 1-15, followed by a careful reading of the relevant texts taking the literary and historical dimensions of the texts in consideration. The investigation came to mainly three results: the exodus tradition is utilized in the book of Amos as a motivation for the prophecies of doom directed to Israel. Secondly, the exodus tradition is in fact turned against Israel and thirdly, the exodus event is radically relativized as an event not unique to Israel alone.