Amos 7

¹Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

³The Lord repented concerning this;

“It shall not be,” said the Lord.

⁴Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,

“O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

⁶The Lord repented concerning this;

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

⁷He showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them;

⁹the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against the house of Jeroboʹam with the sword.”

¹⁰Then Amaziʹah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboʹam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboʹam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.’ ”

¹²And Amaziʹah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there; ¹³but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴Then Amos answered Amaziʹah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, ¹⁵and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ ¹⁶“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord:

‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”