Literary Style Of Amos The Prophet - “the Lion Roars”
An eco-friendly reading in the text of Amos inspires the reader to see deep into the text the interior connection the writer wants to speak.A common reading of the text may not expose the real sound and thrust beneath the text what the writer intends to say.Therefore, when we exegete the text in an eco-friendly manner the meaning of the writers intention becomes clear.
By this exegetical process we could find the author of the book of Amos, fix us to a dried out forest.It is thus quite reasonable to understand a Lion roars when it feels hungry.When the vegetation of the forest deteriorates and the cattle distorted then where do the Lion feed its prey?
When the vegetation is dried up from the den at Jerusalem, the Lion roars, as the Lord YHWH is in anger.Beginning with the messenger speech “Thus says the Lord” (Am.
Amos 3:4 cites “Does a Lion roars in the forest, when it has no prey?” which signifies the nothingness and the dried out state of the forest.Deforestation as a result gives a dried out condition of the anger of the inhabitations.Thus roaring of the Lion signifies the devastated forest and the vegetation plundered.
The Lion imagery portrays the very existence of the king of the animal world in question.Then the other living species of the forest could have no way but decay and deceased.Therefore, the time has come for the king of the animal world to roar and spell out its pathetic situation in a dried out devastated forest.
A Lion living in a forest specify the fertile condition of the forest.That signifies enough water resources and other vegetations to feed all kinds of living beings, especially the animal world.The forest which has no Lion loses its initial nature of a forest, because the survival of all its living creatures and the cycle of the animal world in threat.
Ecological imbalance naturally destroys the living condition of the creatures in the forest.As a result, when the wealth of the forest is plundered, the living condition of not only the Lion, but every creature is in threat.Amos, the prophet foresees this devastated stature of the forest and claims, “the Lion roars”.That could be the voice of a real Lion, or the voice of the Lord, the creator.