An explosion of scholarly treatments of the Book of Amos leaves one wondering: What do we know for sure about the prophet, his time, and his writing? Gerhard Hasel synthesizes the latest rethinking of the prophet's vocation, background, purpose, themes, and motifs to explain why Amos is "a microcosm for the study of all the prophetic writings of the Old Testament." The most extensive bibliography on Amos ever compiled enables further study.