Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

7 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:l He was preparing swarms of locustsm after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean,n I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive?o He is so small!p”

3 So the Lord relented.q

“This will not happen,” the Lord said.r

4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire;s it dried up the great deep and devouredt the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!u”

6 So the Lord relented.v

“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.w

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,a with a plumb lineb in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see,x Amos?y”

“A plumb line,z” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.a

9 “The high placesb of Isaac will be destroyed

and the sanctuariesc of Israel will be ruined;

with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.d”

Amos and Amaziah

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethele sent a message to Jeroboamf king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracyg against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.h 11 For this is what Amos is saying:

“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,

and Israel will surely go into exile,i

away from their native land.’ ”j

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!k Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.l 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,m because this is the king’s sanctuary and the templen of the kingdom.o”

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophetp nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.q 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flockr and said to me, ‘Go,s prophesyt to my people Israel.’u 16 Now then, hearv the word of the Lord. You say,

“ ‘Do not prophesy againstw Israel,

and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitutex in the city,

and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.

Your land will be measured and divided up,

and you yourself will die in a paganc country.

And Israel will surely go into exile,y

away from their native land.z’ ”

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

8 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:a a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see,b Amos?c” he asked.

“A basketd of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.e

3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.a f Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!g”

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poorh of the land,i

5 saying,

“When will the New Moonj be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath be ended

that we may marketk wheat?”l—

skimping on the measure,

boosting the price

and cheatingm with dishonest scales,n

6 buying the pooro with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat.p

7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:q “I will never forgetr anything they have done.s

8 “Will not the land tremblet for this,

and all who live in it mourn?

The whole land will rise like the Nile;

it will be stirred up and then sink

like the river of Egypt.u

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.v

10 I will turn your religious festivalsw into mourning

and all your singing into weeping.x

I will make all of you wear sackclothy

and shavez your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only sona

and the end of it like a bitter day.b

11 “The days are coming,”c declares the Sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famined of hearing the words of the Lord.e

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of the Lord,

but they will not find it.f

13 “In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young meng

will faint because of thirst.h

14 Those who swear by the sin of Samariai—

who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’j

or, ‘As surely as the godb of Beershebak lives’—

they will fall,l never to rise again.m”

Israel to Be Destroyed

9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:

“Strike the tops of the pillars

so that the thresholds shake.

Bring them down on the headsn of all the people;

those who are left I will kill with the sword.

Not one will get away,

none will escape.o

2 Though they dig down to the depths below,p

from there my hand will take them.

Though they climb up to the heavens above,q

from there I will bring them down.r

3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,s

there I will hunt them down and seize them.t

Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,u

there I will command the serpentv to bite them.w

4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,

there I will command the swordx to slay them.

“I will keep my eye on them

for harmy and not for good.z”a

5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty—

he touches the earth and it melts,b

and all who live in it mourn;

the whole land rises like the Nile,

then sinks like the river of Egypt;c

6 he builds his lofty palacea d in the heavens

and sets its foundationb on the earth;

he calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out over the face of the land—

the Lord is his name.e

7 “Are not you Israelites

the same to me as the Cushitesc?”f

declares the Lord.

“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,

the Philistinesg from Caphtord h

and the Arameans from Kir?i

8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord

are on the sinful kingdom.

I will destroyj it

from the face of the earth.

Yet I will not totally destroy

the descendants of Jacob,”

declares the Lord.k

9 “For I will give the command,

and I will shake the people of Israel

among all the nations

as grainl is shaken in a sieve,m

and not a pebble will reach the ground.n

10 All the sinners among my people

will die by the sword,o

all those who say,

‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’p

Israel’s Restoration

11 “In that day

“I will restore David’sq fallen shelterr—

I will repair its broken walls

and restore its ruinss—

and will rebuild it as it used to be,t

12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edomu

and all the nations that bear my name,e v”

declares the Lord, who will do these things.w

13 “The days are coming,”x declares the Lord,

“when the reapery will be overtaken by the plowmanz

and the planter by the one treadinga grapes.

New wineb will drip from the mountains

and flow from all the hills,c

14 and I will bringd my people Israel back from exile.f e

“They will rebuild the ruined citiesf and live in them.

They will plant vineyardsg and drink their wine;

they will make gardens and eat their fruit.h

15 I will planti Israel in their own land,j

never again to be uprootedk

from the land I have given them,”l

says the Lord your God.m