Amos 7–8

Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

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

So the Lord relented.^f

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

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

So the Lord relented.^k

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

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

“A plumb line,^o” I replied.

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

“The high places^q of Isaac will be destroyed

and the sanctuaries^r of Israel will be ruined;

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

Amos and Amaziah

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel^a sent a message to Jeroboam^b king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy^c against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.^d For this is what Amos is saying:

“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,

and Israel will surely go into exile,^e

away from their native land.’ ”^f

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!^g Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.^h Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,ⁱ because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple^j of the kingdom.^k”

Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^l nor the disciple of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.^m But the Lord took me from tending the flockⁿ and said to me, ‘Go,^o prophesy^p to my people Israel.’^q Now then, hear^r the word of the Lord. You say,

“ ‘Do not prophesy against^s Israel,

and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’

“Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute^t 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 country.

And Israel will surely go into exile,^u

away from their native land.^v’ ”

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

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

“A basket^d 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

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

Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poor^h of the land,ⁱ

saying,

“When will the New Moon^j be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath be ended

that we may market^k wheat?”^l—

skimping on the measure,

boosting the price

and cheating^m with dishonest scales,ⁿ

buying the poor^o with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat.^p

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

“Will not the land tremble^t 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

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.^v

I will turn your religious festivals^w into mourning

and all your singing into weeping.^x

I will make all of you wear sackcloth^y

and shave^z your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only son^a

and the end of it like a bitter day.^b

“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 famine^d of hearing the words of the Lord.^e

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

“In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young men^g

will faint because of thirst.^h

Those who swear by the sin of Samariaⁱ—

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

or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba^k lives’—

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