James R. Linville, «Visions and Voices: Amos 7–9», Vol. 80 (1999) 22-42

The final chapters of Amos are read synchronically to highlight the relationship between the divine voice, which demands that its hearers prophesy (Amos 3,8), the voice of Amos, and those of other characters. Amos’ intercessions soon give way to entrapping word-plays and these are related to the rhetorical “traps” in Amos 1–2. Divine and prophetic speech defy the wish of human authority that they be silent. The figure of Amos eventually disappears from the reader’s view, but not before the prophet has been used as a focal point for the readers’ projections of themselves into the literary world of the text. As the scenes change from ultimate destruction to restoration, the readers appropriate the prophetic voice themselves, especially in the final verse which ends with a declaration of security uttered by “your God”.

none of them truly understand that they are threatened themselves, even if they do agree with Amos’ point in v. 6, that threatening situations are the work of YHWH. But the actual audience of the passage, the readers, must supply for the textual audience the answers to Amos’ questions. They too, are caught in the logic of v. 8. But can the readers fulfil their prophetic obligation by reading and proclaiming the message of the book itself? Or are new revelations demanded¹²? The trap here forces the readers to judge their own relationship vis-à-vis the word of YHWH. As I will illustrate below, traps in the form of word-plays are set for Amos in chaps. 7 and 8. These, and the effects of identification with the character of Amos and the narratorial voice, and the resulting engagement with the divine will, result in the "ancient" prophecy being actualised in the reader’s own time: the reader does become a prophet, however vicariously, through Amos, the sheep-breeder from Tekoa.

        Amos 7 to 9 has a number of features which enable it to be understood as a relatively independent phase in the book’s progression. The primary evidence that a new section begins with 7,1 are the introduction of the related pairs of vision reports and the switch to first-person reporting¹³. There is a sudden great emphasis on Amos, both in first-person reports of encounters with God, and in the form of a brief narrative set in Bethel (Amos 7,10-17). On the other hand, internal divisions are often made in chaps. 7–9. For instance, many see Amos 7,10-17 as intrusive, and a number of scholars treat 9,11-15 as something of an inauthentic appendage¹⁴.