phesy about sixty years, during the successive reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; and probably to about the third year of the reign of the last; or if we reckon by the kings of Israel, against which nation he chiefly prophesied, he may be described as having flourished during the reign of Jeroboam and his successors, to the sixth year of Hosea, which corresponds with the third year of Hezekiah. Hosea was therefore nearly contemporary with Isaiah, Amos, and Jonah. It is probable, that he resided chiefly in Samaria, and that he was the first prophet, of those at least whose prophecies we possess, that predicted the

destruction of that country; which was effected soon after the prophet's death by Salmaneser, king of Assyria. Hosea undoubtedly compiled his own prophecies, and the book is cited by St. Matthew as unquestionably the inspired production of a prophet, as likewise by St. Paul, and indeed by Christ himself.

JOEL.

WE may safely suppose Joel to have lived in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and of Jeroboam, king of Israel, who flourished as contemporary sovereigns between A. M. 3194 and 3219; and to have delivered his prophecies soon after Hosea had commenced his ministry. Joel was

the son of Pethuel, or Bethuel, and according to some reports, of the tribe of Reuben. He is related to have been born at Bethoron, which was probably the lower or nether Bethoron, a town in the territory of Benjamin, between Jerusalem and Cæsarea. Of the particulars of his life, or of the age to which he attained, we have no account. Dorotheus relates only, that he died in peace at the place of his nativity.

AMOS.

AMOS appears to have been contemporary with Hosea, but it is uncertain which was the first honoured by divine revelations. They both

began to prophesy during the time that Uzziah and Jeroboam the Second reigned over their respective kingdoms; and Amos saw his first vision "two years before the earthquake;" which, as we learn from Zechariah, happened in the days of Uzziah. We must suppose this earthquake to have happened while Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporaries, or at least within two years of that period. The prophet Amos was a native of Tekoa, a small town in the territory of Judah, about four leagues southward from Jerusalem, and six southward from Bethlehem; adjacent to a vast wilderness, where probably Amos might have exercised his profession of an

herdsman. Some, indeed, think that he was not born at Tekoa, but that he only resided there when commanded by Amaziah to leave Bethel. But Amos does not appear to have regarded the arrogant injunction of the priest, but to have continued boldly to prophesy wherever the service of God required his presence. Amos was by profession an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. In the simplicity of former times, and in the happy climates of the East, these occupations were by no means considered in that degrading light in which they have been viewed since refinement hath introduced a taste for the elegant arts of life, and established