Scripture Helps
Amos; Obadiah; Jonah

Scripture Helps

Amos; Obadiah; Jonah

Amos warned the Israelites and surrounding nations that they would be destroyed if they did not repent. He prophesied that because the Israelites had rejected the prophets, the Lord would remove His prophets from among them. Obadiah prophesied that Edom would be destroyed because of their betrayal when Babylon invaded Jerusalem. He also prophesied of the restoration of Israel and of saviors on Mount Zion. The Lord called Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah fled and was swallowed by a great fish. After God delivered him, Jonah went to Nineveh and the people repented. The Lord then taught Jonah about His love and mercy.

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Background and Context

What is the book of Amos?

The book of Amos contains the teachings and prophecies of Amos, originally a shepherd and farmer from a small town near Jerusalem. He lived in the eighth century BC during the reigns of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel. Although Amos was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, his prophetic mission was primarily directed to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Amos warned that judgment was soon to come upon Israel because the people had rejected the prophets, and the wealthy had mistreated the poor and vulnerable. Many of the people of Israel rejected the warnings of Amos and the other prophets, and they were conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC.

The book of Amos can be divided as follows:

  • Amos 1–2: Prophecies of judgment against various nations, including Judah and Israel, for their wickedness.

  • Amos 3–6: Warnings to the Northern Kingdom and Amos’s plea for the people to repent.

  • Amos 7–9: Amos’s visions of coming judgment and a message of hope that God would one day restore and bless His people.

Amos 2:11–12

What was a Nazarite?

The term Nazarite (also spelled Nazirite) comes from a Hebrew word that means “dedicated” or “withheld.” Nazarites were individuals who made a special vow to dedicate themselves wholly to God’s service for a period of their lives. The Lord reproved the Israelites for giving wine to the Nazarites and causing them to break their vow to abstain from such drink.

See also “Judges 13:2–5. What was a Nazarite?”

Amos 3:1–8

What did Amos teach about the Lord’s prophets?

Through the prophet Amos, the Lord rebuked Israel, which had rejected His messengers by telling the prophets to “prophesy not.” The Lord then posed a series of rhetorical questions in Amos 3:2–8 to emphasize that silencing the prophets would not spare Israel from judgment.

Amos also testified, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” The Joseph Smith Translation of this verse changes the word “but” to “until.” The Hebrew word for “secret” in Amos 3:7 can also be rendered “council,” “counsel,” or “plan.” Amos was likely emphasizing that the Lord would not allow Israel to be destroyed without first revealing His intentions to His prophets and warning the people to repent.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught a similar principle: “Whenever God was about to bring a judgment upon the world or accomplish any great work, the first thing he did was to raise up a Prophet, and reveal unto him the secret, and send him to warn the people so that they may be left without excuse. This was the case in the days of Noah, and Lot: God was about to bring judgments upon the people, and he raised up those prophets who warned the people of it; yet they gave no heed to them, but rejected their testimony; and the judgments came upon the people so that they were destroyed, while the prophets were saved by pursuing the course marked out by the Lord.”

Amos 5:18–20

What was meant by the phrase “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord”?

The “day of the Lord” refers to times when the Lord brings judgment to the wicked and salvation to the righteous. Many Israelites in Amos’s time assumed that the day of the Lord would bring them victory over their enemies. However, the Lord warned that because of the Israelites’ sins, for them “the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” Instead of receiving protection, they would experience judgment unless they repented.

Amos 7:1–6

Did the Lord repent when Amos pleaded for Israel?

(Compare Jonah 3:9–10; 4:2)

In the King James Version of Amos 7, verses 3 and 6 state that “the Lord repented” after Amos pleaded for mercy on behalf of the people. The Hebrew word translated as “repented” in these verses has a variety of meanings, including “to regret,” “to feel sorrow or sympathy,” “to comfort,” or “to relent or forebear.” The Joseph Smith Translation revises these verses to clarify that the Lord did not repent; instead, He withheld judgment because “Jacob shall repent.”

See also “Genesis 6:6. What are we to understand from the phrase ‘it repented the Lord’?”

Amos 7:7–8

What is a “plumbline”?

A plumb line is a cord with a metal weight or stone tied to one end. This tool was used by builders to ensure that walls were exactly straight vertically. In these verses, a plumb line is used figuratively to represent God measuring the righteousness of the Israelites. By symbolically stretching out the plumb line, the Lord revealed how far the people had strayed from His commandments.

plumb bob

Amos 8:11–14

What was the spiritual famine the Lord promised to send?

In earlier times, God had sent physical famines to help turn the people back to Him, but they still refused to repent. In chapter 8, Amos prophesied of a different type of famine—a spiritual famine in which the Lord would withdraw His word from the people.

One fulfillment of this prophecy occurred after the ministry of the prophet Malachi, when more than 400 years passed without divinely called prophets ministering in the land of Israel. Amos’s words were fulfilled again after Jesus Christ established His Church during His mortal ministry. Following the deaths of the Savior and His Apostles, the Church fell into apostasy and the people no longer received God’s words through living prophets. This widespread falling away was foretold by the Lord’s prophets and continued until God restored His gospel to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

cracked earth during a drought

Amos prophesied of a famine of God’s word.

What is the book of Obadiah?

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. His prophecy was written after one of the conquests of Jerusalem—probably its capture by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Obadiah contains a prophecy of judgment against Edom, a nation descended from Isaac’s son Esau. When Jerusalem was captured, the people of Edom refused to help the people of Judah, gloated over their misfortune, looted the goods they left behind, and betrayed them to their enemies. Obadiah foretold the doom that awaited the people of Edom because of their cruelty toward the people of Jerusalem. Obadiah also prophesied of the future restoration of Jerusalem.

Obadiah 1:21

What does it mean that saviors will come up on mount Zion?

Although Jerusalem was conquered, Obadiah prophesied of a future day when God’s covenant people would be delivered. He taught that during this time, there would be “saviours” who would “come up on mount Zion.” In the Old Testament, the term “Mount Zion” typically refers to Jerusalem, particularly the temple mount.

Latter-day prophets have applied Obadiah’s prophecy to the last days, when Israel will be gathered, Zion will be established, and temple work will bless God’s children. Elder Quentin L. Cook taught, “We can … perform vicarious ordinances and truly become saviors on Mount Zion for our own families in order that we, with them, might be exalted as well as saved.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith explained: “How are [the Saints] to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them.”

What is the book of Jonah?

Unlike other prophetic books in the Old Testament, the book of Jonah is not a collection of Jonah’s prophecies but a narrative account of his personal experiences. Jonah was a prophet from the northern territory of Zebulun who ministered during the reign of Jeroboam II in the mid-eighth century BC. When Jonah attempted to avoid God’s call to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, he discovered the uselessness of trying to flee from Jehovah. Jonah’s miraculous deliverance from a “great fish” and the opportunity given to the people of Nineveh to repent demonstrate God’s merciful nature.

Jonah on the beach at Nineveh

Jonah on the Beach at Nineveh, by Daniel A. Lewis

Jonah 1:1–3

What do we know about the cities of Nineveh and Tarshish?

Nineveh was a major city in the Assyrian Empire that later became its capital under King Sennacherib. It was more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Jonah’s hometown of Gath-hepher. Before Jonah preached to them, the people of the city were involved in great wickedness. The exact location of Tarshish is unknown, but many scholars identify it with Tartessus, an ancient city in southern Spain. Tarshish was situated in the opposite direction of Nineveh and likely represented a faraway location. By attempting to flee to Tarshish, Jonah was trying to get as far away as he could from where the Lord had called him to go.

Jonah 2

What is significant about Jonah’s experience inside the fish?

After being swallowed by a fish, Jonah offered a prayer from within its belly. His prayer is structured as a psalm of thanksgiving, and it echoes numerous themes from the book of Psalms. Jonah described his descent into the sea as a symbolic descent into death. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ pointed to Jonah’s experience as a sign of His own death, burial, and Resurrection.

Jonah 4

What was the meaning of Jonah’s experience with the gourd?

Although Jonah had personally benefited from the Lord’s mercy and kindness, he resented these same qualities when the Lord spared the people of Nineveh. Jonah’s reaction to the withered gourd exposed his misplaced priorities—he showed more concern for a plant that gave him temporary comfort than for an entire city of people. Through the plant, the Lord reminded Jonah that He cared for the people of Nineveh, even if Jonah did not.

Learn More

Prophets

Apostasy and Restoration

Jonah

Media

Images

chart showing the timeline of Old Testament prophets and the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
illustration of the prophet Amos

Detail of the prophet Amos from Old Testament Collage #1, by Mitchell W. Heinze.

Jonah being thrown from a boat into the sea

Jehovah Warns Jonah, by Sam Lawlor

Jonah falling from a sailboat into water with a large, ominous fish shadow in it

Jonah and the Whale, by Kevin Carden

Jonah preaching in Nineveh

Jonah Calling Nineveh to Repentance, by Gustave Doré

Notes

  1. See Amos 1:1; 7:14–15.

  2. See Bible Dictionary, “Amos.”

  3. See Guide to the Scriptures, “Amos,” Gospel Library. See also Joshua M. Matson, “Covenants, Kinship, and Caring for the Destitute in the Book of Amos,” in Covenant of Compassion: Caring for the Marginalized and Disadvantaged in the Old Testament, ed. Avram R. Shannon and others (2021), 399–420; Blair G. Van Dyke and D. Kelly Ogden, “Amos through Malachi: Major Teachings of the Twelve Prophets,” Religious Educator, vol. 4, no. 3 (2003), 63–65.

  4. See Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and others, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament: An Illustrated Reference for Latter-day Saints (2009), 279.

  5. J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2011), “Nazirite,” 1001–2.

  6. See Bible Dictionary, “Nazarite.” See also “1 Samuel 1:9–11. Why did Hannah promise that no razor would come upon her son’s head?”

  7. Amos 2:12. See also Amos 7:13, 16.

  8. Amos 3:7.

  9. See Amos 3:7, footnote a.

  10. Many scholars suggest that the Lord revealing his secret to the prophets refers to prophets taking part in a heavenly council in which the Lord’s counsel was made known (see Holzapfel and others, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament, 262; Taylor Halverson, “The Path of Angels: A Biblical Pattern for the Role of Angels in Physical Salvation,” in The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, ed. D. Kelly Ogden and others (2009), 167, note 23).

  11. See Kerry Muhlestein, Scripture Study Made Simple: The Old Testament (2017), 497, note on Amos 3:7.

  12. History, 1838–1856 (Manuscript History of the Church), volume E-1, 1727, josephsmithpapers.org.

  13. See “Isaiah 13:6. What is the ‘day of the Lord’?”

  14. See Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed. (2014), 1175, note on Amos 5:18–20.

  15. Amos 5:18.

  16. Joshua M. Sears, “O Lord God, Forgive! Prophetic Intercession in Amos,” in Prophets and Prophecies of the Old Testament, ed. Aaron P. Schade and others (2017), 187–88. See also the discussion for endnote 7 on pages 199–200.

  17. Amos 7:3, footnote a; Amos 7:6, footnote a.

  18. See Douglas and Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, “plumb line,” 1154.

  19. See Amos 4:6–12.

  20. See “Between the Old and New Testaments,” in Scripture Helps: New Testament.

  21. It would take a few more centuries for the Great Apostasy to take place in the Americas (see 4 Nephi 1:45–49).

  22. See 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3; “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World,” Gospel Library.

  23. See Dana M. Pike, “Obadiah 1:21: Context, Text, Interpretation, and Application,” in Prophets and Prophecies of the Old Testament, ed. Aaron P. Schade and others (2017), 49–50.

  24. See Berlin and Brettler, The Jewish Study Bible, 1183.

  25. See Obadiah 1:11–14.

  26. See Obadiah 1:17–21.

  27. Obadiah 1:21.

  28. See Pike, “Obadiah 1:21,” 55. See also pages 47–71 for a broader discussion of various interpretive approaches to Obadiah 1:21.

  29. Quentin L. Cook, “Roots and Branches,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 48. See also Gerrit W. Gong, “All Things for Our Good,” Liahona, May 2024, 43. The Hebrew word for “saviour” refers to someone who saves, rescues, or delivers (see Tremper Longman III and Mark L. Strauss, eds., The Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words [2023], “Save, Savior,” 704–6).

  30. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 473.

  31. See Bible Dictionary, “Jonah.” See also “Chronology of the Old Testament,” Gospel Library.

  32. Jonah 1:17.

  33. See Bible Dictionary, “Nineveh.”

  34. See Kenneth L. Barker and others, eds., NIV Study Bible: Fully Revised Edition (2020), 1543, note on Jonah 1:2.

  35. See Jonah 1:2. See also Jonah 3:8.

  36. See Earl D. Radmacher and others, eds., NKJV Study Bible, 3rd ed. (2018), 1317, note on Jonah 1:3; 1318.

  37. See, for example, Psalms 18:5–6; 30:3; 69:1–2; 71:20; 118:5; 130:1. See also Berlin and Brettler, The Jewish Study Bible, 1189–90, note on Jonah 2:3–10.

  38. The word translated “hell” in Jonah 2:2 comes from the Hebrew Sheol, which is used in the Old Testament to designate the realm of the dead (see Radmacher and others, NKJV Study Bible, 1319, note on Jonah 2:2; see also “Psalm 16:10. What is meant by the phrase ‘thou wilt not leave my soul in hell’?”).

  39. See Matthew 12:39–40; 16:4; Luke 11:29–30. For more possible ways the account of Jonah points to Jesus Christ, see David R. Scott, “The Book of Jonah: Foreshadowings of Jesus as the Christ,” BYU Studies Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 3 (2014), 161–80.

  40. See Jonah 2–3; 4:1–2.

  41. See Barker and others, NIV Study Bible, 1546, note on Jonah 4:9.

  42. See Kerry Muhlestein, The Essential Old Testament Companion: Key Insights to Your Gospel Study (2013), 500.