Prophet of Zion

On tour in Tekoa 2004 with father of terror victim Kobi Mandell

This was the week of my favourite Haftorah, from Amos -  a prophet of few words; his is the shortest book in Tanach.



But in terms of Zionism, probably the one who penned the best lines of them all.

Chapter 9 foretells the rebirth of the Jewish state - uncannily as we see it today:

¹¹ “In that day

“I will restore David’s fallen shelter —
I will repair its broken walls
and restore its ruins —
and will rebuild it as it used to be,
¹² so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear my name,^[a] ”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.

¹³ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
and flow from all the hills,
¹⁴ and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.^[b]

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God. 

Amos was a herdsman of Tekoa, one of the Judean territories recaptured in 1967 and which Amos would now see reborn as a Jewish settlement just as he prophesied nearly 3,000 years ago.

Enjoy Dov Shurin's catchy song of the Amos prophesy here ...