Amos 7

Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

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

³So the Lord relented.^q

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

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

⁶So the Lord relented.^v

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

⁷This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,^a with a plumb line^b in his hand. ⁸And 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 places^b of Isaac will be destroyed

and the sanctuaries^c of Israel will be ruined;

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

Amos and Amaziah

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel^e sent a message to Jeroboam^f king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy^g 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

¹²Then 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”

¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^p 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 flock^r and said to me, ‘Go,^s prophesy^t to my people Israel.’^{u 16}Now then, hear^v the word of the Lord. You say,

“ ‘Do not prophesy against^w Israel,

and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

¹⁷“Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute^x 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 pagan^c country.

And Israel will surely go into exile,^y

away from their native land.^z’ ”