Amos 7:14

I was no prophet, &c.— Houbigant reads this, I am no prophet, neither am I a prophet's son; that is, "I am not accustomed to act as a prophet; this is not my condition of life, and therefore it is in vain that you bid me to go and prophesy in Judah; I have only this once taken upon me the person and office of a prophet, because such was God's immediate command to me." We may collect from this answer, that Amos did not prophesy at other periods of his life; but that what we now have of his prophesies were delivered almost all at the same time; for, if he had frequently been in this capacity, he would not have said, I am not a prophet. By sycamore fruit, is generally understood a kind of wild figs, which were common in Egypt and Palestine. See Zechariah 13:5.