Amos 7:14 Meaning and Explanation

Amos answers the charge that he prophesies for pay by denying he belongs to any such guild: "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son." He had no training, no inherited office, no professional standing. His livelihood lay elsewhere -- he was "an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit," a working man of the fields, tending animals and tending trees.

The reply is disarming in its plainness. Amos owes nothing to Bethel and seeks nothing from it; he cannot be silenced by being cut off from a salary he never had. His authority does not rest on credentials or position but on the simple fact that he was summoned. In naming his humble trade, he quietly demolishes Amaziah's whole assumption. A man who already has his calling in the fields does not prophesy to make a living -- he prophesies because he was called.