Amos 7:14

I am not a prophet. That is, I am not a prophet by education: nor is prophesying my calling or profession: but I am a herdsman, whom God was pleased to send hither to prophesy to Israel. (Challoner) --- He speaks with the like humility as [John] the baptist, John i. 21., and Luke vii. 26. It seems the prophets usually left their trade, and applied to meditation, Zacharias viii. 5. Septuagint, "I was not a prophet, nor," &c. --- Plucking. Septuagint (Theodotion), "pricking." (Calmet) --- This was requisite to make the fruit ripen in four days' time. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xiii. 7., and xvi. 27. --- Wild fig-trees have three sorts of fruits. The flies which proceed from some of them, prick the sweet figs, and make them ripen. (Tourefort i. let. 8.) --- Amos probably conveyed such wild figs to be near those of the garden, while at other times he fed his cattle.