Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line
1 This is what the SovereignLordshowed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts 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, I cried out, “SovereignLord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
3 So theLordrelented.
“This will not happen,” theLordsaid.
4 This is what the SovereignLordshowed me: The SovereignLordwas calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.
5 Then I cried out, “SovereignLord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
6 So theLordrelented.
“This will not happen either,” the SovereignLordsaid.
7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,with a plumb linein his hand.
8 And theLordasked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.
11 For this is what Amos is saying:
“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.
13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.
15 But theLordtook me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
16 Now then, hear the word of theLord. You say,
“ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore this is what theLordsays:
“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute 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 pagancountry.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’ ”
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/AMO/7-05f6876b5b869783984412f0a5206e71.mp3?version_id=111—