Amos

Amos was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore figs, not a professional prophet. He was sent from the southern kingdom to denounce the northern one in a time of prosperity — which makes the message even more uncomfortable. The book opens with oracles against neighboring nations, and the audience probably applauded; then the list reaches Israel, and the tone changes. The accusations are specific: selling the poor for a pair of sandals, rigging scales, luxury built on exploitation. Amos is the social prophet par excellence, with the line Martin Luther King would quote centuries later: "let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream".