Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet's son; but I [was] an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
Ver. 14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah] With no less courage, I suppose, than Paul and Barnabas used to the stubborn Jews, Acts 13:46; see John 1:19; John 1:21; or Basil to Valent, the emperor, or Johannes Sarisburieusis to the Pope, A.D. 1540; or Bishop Ridley, when offering to preach before the Lady Mary, and receiving a repulse, he was brought by Sir Thomas Wharton, her servant, to the dining place, and desired to drink, which after he had done, he paused a while, looking very sadly; and suddenly broke out into these words: Surely I have done amiss. Why so? quoth the knight. For I have drunk, said he, in that place where God's word offered hath been refused; whereas, if I had remembered my duty, I had departed immediately and shaken off the dust of my shoes for a testimony against this house. These words were by the said bishop spoken with such a vehemence, that some of the hearers afterwards confessed the hairs to stand upright on their heads.
I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son] Neither born nor bred a prophet; neither have I rashly or ambitiously put myself upon this tremend employment; my call thereto was extraordinary. The prophet's scholars were called their sons, 2 Kings 2:8; 2Ki 2:5; 2 Kings 2:7; 2 Kings 2:15 Isa 8:18 Mark 10:24 1Co 4:14; 1 Corinthians 4:17 .
But I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit] Of low condition, and hardly bred; so that I could live with a little, and needed not to turn prophet, ventris causa, for food sake. When one said to the philosopher, If you will but please Dionysius you need not feed upon green herbs, he presently replied. And if you can feed upon green herbs you need not please Dionysius. Nature is content with a little, grace with less. It is not for a servant of God to be a slave to his palate: Luther made many a meal of a herring.