The book of Amos has often been seen as a key text promoting social justice, through its condemnation of social injustice. Literary study of the text reveals five sections: chapters 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7:1–9:6, 9:7–15. Redaction-critical study indicates that the text developed from an earliest eighth-century text into the final form produced in the post-exilic period. Chapters 1–2 contain a series of Oracles Against the Nations, while 7:1–9:4 contains a series of visions. Between them are prophetic words of judgment. The final 9:7–15 contains words of promised future blessing. Key themes include YHWH’s announcing of judgment of the people because of the exploitation of the poor and weak by the rich and powerful, and calls to seek YHWH and live. There are Closer Look sections (Zion; Oracles Against the Nations; The Nazirites; Justice in the Gate; Justice and Righteousness; Woe Oracles; The Prophets, the Cult, and Sacrifice; The Prophets as Intercessors; Seers and Prophets). There are also Bridging the Horizons sections (Atrocities and War Crimes, and on Martin Luther King Jr.)

This chapter analyses the main legal and political strategies used by the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) in its struggle for law and justice in Brazil. It explains why these legal and political strategies are pursued jointly, and the extent to which they may contribute towards making the law and legal system more sensitive to the claims and social struggles of these workers, particularly those related to the issue of land. It shows that access to law and justice presupposes a broad political process of social transformation. This includes the creation of more substantial forms of social justice and a developing awareness that the law contains many internal contradictions that may eventually be used in the interests of the socially oppressed classes. Social movements fighting for land reform have only become aware of this fact in recent decades but the knowledge has enabled them to supplement their political strategies (such as mass land occupations) with innovative judicial and legal strategies. The resulting interconnection between legal and political initiatives has momentarily strengthened the movement’s objectives, largely due to the intervention of the people’s lawyers, who have liaised between the state legal system and the social movement. In the course of this process, the hegemonic law currently in force has been put to the test.

This chapter presents the government’s economic policies and the oppression of peasants by state agents and large landowners. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the building of the modern Turkish republic was financed largely through taxes and monopoly revenues extracted from the agricultural economy. Turkey’s economy was largely based on agriculture, and accordingly, the new state relied heavily on rural resources. Oppression and coercion by state agents such as tax collectors and gendarmes and local dominants such as large landowners or village headmen accompanied the economic exploitation of peasants. This chapter gives a detailed picture of the exploitation and domination mechanisms that afflicted smallholders and the rural poor. It also sheds light on the impact of the Great Depression on Anatolian peasants.

Biblical and non-Biblical prophecy from the ancient Near East, in all its manifestations, is an equivalent form of divination translated through human words and gestures. Prophets do not need to be members of a guild of religious practitioners or operate within a cultic context based on learned skills. They are measured by the perceived veracity of their message and their strict adherence to the god they serve. The recording of these messages in letters or collected sayings becomes the basis for what we term “prophetic literature,” a diverse body of literary forms that at its heart demonstrates to devotees the active interest of the god(s) in human activities and endeavors. To comprehend the basic characteristics of prophetic literature in the Hebrew Bible, this study examines the social and cultural setting contributing to its development as well as the prophetic traditions that are found in documents from ancient Mesopotamia.