Amos 7:1–9:4
7 aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, bhe was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
“O Lord God, please forgive!
cHow can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
3 dThe Lord relented concerning this:
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling efor a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,
“O Lord God, please cease!
cHow can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
6 dThe Lord relented concerning this:
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 aThis is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with fa plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, g“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting fa plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
gI will never again pass by them;
9 hthe high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against ithe house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah jthe priest of Bethel sent to kJeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has lconspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and mIsrael must go into exile
away from his land.’ ”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, n“O seer, go, flee away oto the land of Judah, and peat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but qnever again prophesy at Bethel, for rit is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, s“I was1 no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but tI was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 uBut the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 vNow therefore hear the word of the Lord.
“You say, n‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and wdo not preach against the house of xIsaac.’
17 yTherefore thus says the Lord:
“ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land zshall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and mIsrael shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”
The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning
8 aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, b“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, c“A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
d“The end1 has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them.
3 eThe songs of the temple2 fshall become wailings3 in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
g“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
h“Silence!”
4 Hear this, iyou who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will jthe new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And kthe Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make lthe ephah small and the shekel4 great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for msilver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by nthe pride of Jacob:
“Surely oI will never forget any of their deeds.
8 pShall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
qand all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
s“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 tI will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
uI will bring sackcloth on every waist
uand baldness on every head;
vI will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when wI will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 xThey shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
ybut they shall not find it.
13 z“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
shall afaint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by bthe Guilt of Samaria,
and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As cthe Way of dBeersheba lives,’
they shall fall, and never rise again.”
9 I saw the Lord standing beside1 the altar, and he said:
e“Strike the capitals until ethe thresholds fshake,
gand shatter them on the heads of all the people;2
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
hnot one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
2 i“If they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
iif they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on jthe top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
kand if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 lAnd if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
mand I will fix my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”