Balas means to gather or tend sycamore figs. The sycamore fig required a specific agricultural technique: each fruit had to be pierced or nipped to accelerate ripening. The word describes this specialized labor of tending and harvesting sycamore figs, a task associated with the lower economic classes in ancient Israel.
The word is most significant for its connection to the prophet Amos, who identified himself as a "tender of sycamore figs" (boles shikmim) — a humble occupation that underscored his lack of prophetic credentials. Amos was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son but a herdsman and fig-tender whom God called directly (Amos 7:14). This humble background became his prophetic authority: he spoke not from institutional training but from divine compulsion. God's choice of a fig-gatherer to confront kings reveals the pattern of divine election through lowliness.