Amos 7:1–9:7

Vision of the Locusts

7 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the 1beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. 2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:

“O Lord God, forgive, I pray!

aOh, 2that Jacob may stand,

For he is small!”

3 So bthe Lord relented concerning this.

“It shall not be,” said the Lord.

Vision of the Fire

4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called 3for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the 4territory. 5 Then I said:

“O Lord God, cease, I pray!

cOh, that Jacob may stand,

For he is small!”

6 So the Lord relented concerning this.

“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

Vision of the Plumb Line

7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

And I said, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said:

“Behold, dI am setting a plumb line

In the midst of My people Israel;

eI will not pass by them anymore.

9 fThe 5high places of Isaac shall be desolate,

And the 6sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.

gI will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”

Amaziah’s Complaint

10 Then Amaziah the hpriest of iBethel sent to jJeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to 7bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said:

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

And Israel shall surely be led away kcaptive

From their own land.’ ”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos:

“Go, you seer!

Flee to the land of Judah.

There eat bread,

And there prophesy.

13 But lnever again prophesy at Bethel,

mFor it is the king’s 8sanctuary,

And it is the royal 9residence.”

14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:

“I was no prophet,

Nor was I na son of a prophet,

But I was a osheepbreeder

And a tender of sycamore fruit.

15 Then the Lord took me 1as I followed the flock,

And the Lord said to me,

‘Go, pprophesy to My people Israel.’

16 Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:

You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

And qdo not 2spout against the house of Isaac.’

17 “Therefore rthus says the Lord:

s‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;

Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;

Your land shall be divided by survey line;

You shall die in a tdefiled land;

And Israel shall surely be led away captive

From his own land.’ ”

Vision of the Summer Fruit

8 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?”

So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then the Lord said to me:

a“The end has come upon My people Israel;

bI will not pass by them anymore.

3 And cthe songs of the temple

Shall be wailing in that day,”

Says the Lord God—

“Many dead bodies everywhere,

dThey shall be thrown out in silence.”

4 Hear this, you who 1swallow up the needy,

And make the poor of the land fail,

5 Saying:

“When will the New Moon be past,

That we may sell grain?

And ethe Sabbath,

That we may 2trade wheat?

fMaking the ephah small and the shekel large,

Falsifying the scales by gdeceit,

6 That we may buy the poor for hsilver,

And the needy for a pair of sandals—

Even sell the bad wheat?”

7 The Lord has sworn by ithe pride of Jacob:

“Surely jI will never forget any of their works.

8 kShall the land not tremble for this,

And everyone mourn who dwells in it?

All of it shall swell like 3the River,

Heave and subside

lLike the River of Egypt.

9 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,

m“That I will make the sun go down at noon,

And I will darken the earth in 4broad daylight;

10 I will turn your feasts into nmourning,

oAnd all your songs into lamentation;

pI will bring sackcloth on every waist,

And baldness on every head;

I will make it like mourning for an only son,

And its end like a bitter day.

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,

“That I will send a famine on the land,

Not a famine of bread,

Nor a thirst for water,

But qof hearing the words of the Lord.

12 They shall wander from sea to sea,

And from north to east;

They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

But shall rnot find it.

13 “In that day the fair virgins

And strong young men

Shall faint from thirst.

14 Those who sswear by tthe 5sin of Samaria,

Who say,

‘As your god lives, O Dan!’

And, ‘As the way of uBeersheba lives!’

They shall fall and never rise again.”

The Destruction of Israel

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

“Strike the 1doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,

And abreak them on the heads of them all.

I will slay the last of them with the sword.

bHe who flees from them shall not get away,

And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.

2 “Though cthey dig into 2hell,

From there My hand shall take them;

dThough they climb up to heaven,

From there I will bring them down;

3 And though they ehide themselves on top of Carmel,

From there I will search and take them;

Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,

From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;

4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies,

From there fI will command the sword,

And it shall slay them.

gI will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”

5 The Lord God of hosts,

He who touches the earth and it hmelts,

iAnd all who dwell there mourn;

All of it shall swell like 3the River,

And subside like the River of Egypt.

6 He who builds His jlayers 4in the sky,

And has founded His strata in the earth;

Who kcalls for the waters of the sea,

And pours them out on the face of the earth—

lThe Lord is His name.

7 “Are you not like the 5people of Ethiopia to Me,

O children of Israel?” says the Lord.

“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,

The mPhilistines from nCaphtor, 6

And the Syrians from oKir?