A SHEEP-BREEDER — and one of the most argued-over words in the prophets, because it occurs exactly TWICE in the Hebrew Bible. Amos 1:1 calls Amos one of the noqedim of Tekoa; 2 Kings 3:4 calls MESHA KING OF MOAB a noqed, who paid Israel a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams. It is therefore not the ordinary word for shepherd (ro'eh) but something closer to a stock-breeder or flock-manager; the Arabic cognate naqad names a small, fine-fleeced breed. ⚠ So the familiar picture of Amos as a barefoot peasant is a picture the vocabulary does not require — but do not over-read it either: at Amos 7:14 he calls himself a boqer (a cattleman, a different word again) and a dresser of sycamore figs, which is hired work. The rare word points one way and the day-labour points the other, and the honest position is that both are in the text. The shelf mostly levels it to 'herdmen' (KJV) or 'shepherds' (NIV); only the NWT keeps the technical sense, 'sheep raisers.' → first discussed at Amos 1:1