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The Prophet Amos, Amos 7:14 to 7:15, the herdsman of Tekoa answering Amaziah.

Place

Tekoa

Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866). Public domain.

The Prophet Amos, Amos 7:14 to 7:15, the herdsman of Tekoa answering Amaziah.

Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866). Public domain.

tekoaamosjudah

Summary

Judean town on the wilderness edge south of Bethlehem; home of Amos the herdman (Amos 1:1) and the wise woman of 2 Samuel 14.

  • Tekoa was a Judean town on the edge of the wilderness south of Bethlehem, and Amos calls himself a herdsman from among its sheepherders.
  • Joab sent a wise woman from Tekoa to move David toward his exiled son Absalom, and she carried the plan out with a story rather than a plea.
  • Rehoboam fortified Tekoa as one of Judah's defense cities, and Jehoshaphat's army marched out through the wilderness that bears its name to a battle the LORD fought for them.
  • Jeremiah tells Judah to sound the alarm from Tekoa when an army comes from the north.
  • Men of Tekoa helped rebuild Jerusalem's wall under Nehemiah, though the text notes their nobles would not put their own shoulders to the work.

On this page

In Scripture

Verses
9
Books
5
See it on Reference map of ancient Palestine→

Near Tekoa

Straight-line distances, computed from the gazetteer coordinates.

Where it is

the country around it

Coordinates
31.6362° N, 35.2141° Efind it on the Atlas →
Region
Judean hill country
Kind of place
Town

2 places the record names with Tekoa, the farthest 15 km away

15 kmThe Dead SeaThe JordanHebronHebronNobNob2 JerusalemTekoa15 km · 9.3 miN
  1. 1Rehoboam builds up Tekoa among Judah's defense cities2 Chronicles 11:6 · 7.8 kmHe built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
  2. 2Jehoshaphat's army sets out for the Wilderness of Tekoa2 Chronicles 20:20 · 15 kmEarly in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
  • Located: the gazetteer fixes one site
  • Placed: the point stands for an area, or is rounded
  • A dashed line ends at a place the gazetteer does not fix
Each line joins Tekoa to a place one of its verses names, and carries that verse. No line is headed, because none of these verses says which way anyone went. The lines are straight between two coordinates and are not roads. A dashed line ends at a place the gazetteer does not fix. The Dead Sea and the Jordan are drawn from Natural Earth's public-domain outlines. Every mark sits at the coordinates the gazetteer records for it.
Reference map of ancient Palestine: the coast, the hill country, the Jordan rift and the Dead Sea, with the towns of the biblical narrative marked.
Reference map of ancient Palestine: the land from Dan to Beersheba: most of the historical books happen on this one sheet.Rand McNally reference map (1926), public domain.Open this plate full size in The Atlas →

Why Tekoa matters

Tekoa sat in the Judean hill country south of Bethlehem, on the edge of the wilderness that drops down toward the Dead Sea. Scripture never tells a story set inside the town itself; instead, Tekoa keeps sending people and signals out from its edge into the larger narrative, five separate times across five different books. Its most famous export is a shepherd. Amos opens his book by naming himself as one of the sheepherders of Tekoa, and when Amaziah the priest of Bethel tries to run him out of Israel, Amos answers by naming his trade again: not a prophet, nor a prophet's son, but a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees, taken from following the flock and sent north to prophesy against a kingdom that was not his own. Tekoa also sends a wise woman, at Joab's request, to move David toward the son he had exiled. She does not simply ask; Joab puts a story in her mouth, and she plays a grieving mother in front of the king until her parable does the work an ordinary petition could not. The town shows up again in Judah's own defenses, fortified by Rehoboam, and again in Jehoshaphat's reign, when Judah's whole army marches out through the wilderness of Tekoa toward an enemy so large that the king can only say their eyes were on the LORD. Jeremiah later uses the same town as a watch post, telling Judah to sound the ram's horn from Tekoa when disaster comes from the north. After the exile, men of Tekoa return to help rebuild Jerusalem's wall, though Nehemiah notes plainly that their own nobles would not put their shoulders to the work their neighbors were doing.

What has been found

the evidence, and where it is disputed

Khirbet Tequ'a, the ruin immediately east of the modern town, is identified with biblical Tekoa without serious dispute, and the name survives in the ruin's own Arabic name. Martin Heicksen surveyed and partially excavated the site in 1968, and John J. Davis excavated rock-cut tombs there in 1968 and 1970, uncovering Iron Age pottery consistent with occupation through the biblical period. The fourth-century scholar Jerome wrote a full commentary on the book of Amos, addressed to Pammachius around AD 406, and opened its first book with a description of Tekoa itself, a sign of how long the town's association with the prophet held in Christian memory.

Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, and Amaziah's answer

Amos 7:10-17

Read Amos 7:10-17
  1. Amos names himself, and his homeAmos 1:1These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
  2. Amaziah reports Amos to the kingAmos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,
  3. The words Amaziah reportsAmos 7:11for this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”
  4. Go away, you seerAmos 7:12And Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.
  5. Never prophesy at Bethel againAmos 7:13But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.”
  6. A herdsman, and a tender of sycamore-fig treesAmos 7:14“I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.
  7. Taken from following the flockAmos 7:15But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’
  8. The judgment Amos answers withAmos 7:17Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”

Amos names Tekoa once more, at 1:1, as the place he was among the sheepherders before the LORD sent him north to Israel.

Amos: the full study of the book

What happened here, in order

in the order the canon tells it

  1. Joab perceives the king's heart longs for Absalom2 Samuel 14:1Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom.
  2. Joab sends to Tekoa for a wise woman2 Samuel 14:2So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
  3. The parable's core line, water poured out on the ground2 Samuel 14:14For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
  4. Rehoboam builds up Tekoa among Judah's defense cities2 Chronicles 11:6He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
  5. Jehoshaphat's army sets out for the Wilderness of Tekoa2 Chronicles 20:20Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
  6. Sound the ram's horn in TekoaJeremiah 6:1“Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction.
  7. The Tekoites repair, but their nobles will not stoopNehemiah 3:5Next to him, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.
  8. The Tekoites repair a second section of the wallNehemiah 3:27And next to them, the Tekoites repaired another section, from a point opposite the great tower that juts out to the wall of Ophel.

Tekoa in Scripture

9 verses name it, in 5 books

Open a book to read its mentions here. Text: Berean Standard Bible.

First named2 Samuel 14:2So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.Last namedAmos 1:1These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

Old TestamentNew Testamentsegment width = share of mentions

Old Testament5 books · 9 mentions

2 Samuel3 mentions

All of 2 Samuel→

1 Chronicles2 mentions

All of 1 Chronicles→

2 Chronicles2 mentions

All of 2 Chronicles→

Jeremiah1 mention

All of Jeremiah→

Amos1 mention

All of Amos→

Common questions

What did Amaziah accuse Amos of, and how did Amos answer?

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reported to Jeroboam that Amos had conspired against him and quoted Amos's own words back: Jeroboam would die by the sword and Israel would go into exile. He then told Amos to flee to Judah and never prophesy at Bethel again, since it was the king's own sanctuary.

Amos answered by naming his trade rather than defending a title. He was no prophet and no prophet's son, he said, but a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees, and it was the LORD who took him from following the flock and sent him to Israel. He then repeated the judgment Amaziah had tried to silence, this time naming Amaziah's own household in it.

Was the wise woman of Tekoa acting on her own, or was she sent?

She was sent. Joab perceived that David's heart longed for the exiled Absalom, and he sent to Tekoa for a wise woman, told her exactly how to dress and act as a long-mourning widow, and put the words of her story in her mouth before she ever came before the king. Her skill was in the delivery, not the plan.

Why does Jeremiah tell Judah to sound the alarm from Tekoa?

Tekoa sat on the edge of the hill country south of Jerusalem, positioned to give warning of trouble approaching from the north. Jeremiah pairs it with Beth-haccherem as a place to raise a signal, so that Jerusalem would have notice of the disaster he says is coming.

Why does Nehemiah note that the Tekoite nobles would not work?

The text draws the contrast itself. At 3:5 the Tekoites make repairs, but their nobles will not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors. At 3:27 the Tekoites repair a second section of the wall without any such complaint recorded. Nehemiah simply reports it; the town's ordinary people carry the work in both places named.

What was Amos's own trade before he was sent to prophesy?

He calls himself a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees. Scripture itself places sycamore trees in the foothills rather than the high country: 1 Kings 10:27 speaks of cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills, and 1 Chronicles 27:28 names an officer over the olive and sycamore trees in the foothills. Tekoa sits in hill country on the wilderness edge, so the detail is part of why some readers take Amos to have worked more than one kind of land, tending flocks on the wilderness edge and trees in the lowlands nearby. Scripture itself does not explain the detail further than naming it.

Sources cited

Every source behind MannaFest →

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