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Description

It derives from Amos 1—2. This oracle is rhetorically stunning in that the prophet addresses a number of foreign countries: Syria, Tyre, Moab, Edom, and Philistia before he gets to Judah, where he is from. Interesting, though, is that Israel (the northern kingdom) is his main target. However, he issues diatribes first against these other countries—mostly for war crimes—and then lambastes his own area of Judah. Not only he is implying that Israel’s God is the God of everyone else too, but he is “softening up” Israel to relax before they are addressed.