Amos amongst the <i>nōqdīm</i> : Navigating agrarian class conflict in the book of Amos

This paper proposes that Amos’s designation as a נקד‎ conveniently aligns the class position of the eponymous prophet with that of lower-ranking scribal elites. Given the likelihood that the reference to the נקדים‎ in Amos 1.1 is a redactional insertion, this appears to be a deliberate scribal attempt at indicating that Amos was, like themselves, a member of an administrative-bureaucratic class fraction. This observation invites a reappraisal of the excoriating critiques of social ills embedded in the book’s prophetic oracles. Rather than representing the interests of the peasantry per se, the oracles instead highlight intersections between petty-elite and peasant interests. This perhaps reflects a rhetorical attempt to imply a sense of agrarian solidarity between these social groups, whilst avoiding an institutional critique of the upper echelons of Judah, or Yehud’s, ruling classes.