Amos 7:14

_ _ I was no prophet — in answer to Amaziah’s insinuation (Amos 7:12), that he discharged the prophetical office to earn his “bread” (like Israel’s mercenary prophets). So far from being rewarded, Jehovah’s prophets had to expect imprisonment and even death as the result of their prophesying in Samaria or Israel: whereas the prophets of Baal were maintained at the king’s expense (compare 1 Kings 18:19). I was not, says Amos, of the order of prophets, or educated in their schools, and deriving a livelihood from exercising the public functions of a prophet. I am a shepherd (compare Amos 7:15, “flock”; the Hebrew for “herdsman” includes the meaning, shepherd, compare Amos 1:1) in humble position, who did not even think of prophesying among you, until a divine call impelled me to it.

_ _ prophet’s son — that is, disciple. Schools of prophets are mentioned first in First Samuel; in these youths were educated to serve the theocracy as public instructors. Only in the kingdom of the ten tribes is the continuance of the schools of the prophets mentioned. They were missionary stations near the chief seats of superstition in Israel, and associations endowed with the Spirit of God; none were admitted but those to whom the Spirit had been previously imparted. Their spiritual fathers traveled about to visit the training schools, and cared for the members and even their widows (2 Kings 4:1, 2 Kings 4:2). The pupils had their common board in them, and after leaving them still continued members. The offerings which in Judah were given by the pious to the Levites, in Israel went to the schools of the prophets (2 Kings 4:42). Prophecy (for example, Elijah and Elisha) in Israel was more connected with extraordinary events than in Judah, inasmuch as, in the absence of the legal hierarchy of the latter, it needed to have more palpable divine sanction.

_ _ sycamore — abounding in Palestine. The fruit was like the fig, but inferior; according to Pliny, a sort of compound, as the name expresses, of the fig and the mulberry. It was only eaten by the poorest (compare 1 Kings 10:27).

_ _ gatherer — one occupied with their cultivation [Maurer]. To cultivate it, an incision was made in the fruit when of a certain size, and on the fourth day afterwards it ripened [Pliny, Natural History, 13.7, 14]. Grotius from Jerome says, if it be not plucked off and “gathered” (which favors English Version), it is spoiled by gnats.