Amos

Chapter 7

1 God showed me this: I saw him create locusts at the start of the crops’ second growth, after the king’s harvest.

2 When they finished eating the land’s grass, I said, “Please God, forgive us. How can Jacob survive? He is too small.”

3 God changed his mind about this: It will not happen, says God.

4 God showed me this: God called for judgment by fire, which consumed the deep waters and ate up the land.

5 I said, “Please stop, God. How can Jacob recover? He is too weak.”

6 God changed his mind about this: This will not happen either, says God.

7 He showed me: and look, God stood on a wall built straight with a plumb line, holding a plumb line.

8 God asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumbline.” God said, “Look, I will put a plumbline among my people Israel; I won’t overlook their actions anymore.”

9 The special places of Isaac will be empty, and the holy places of Israel will be ruined; and I will attack the family of Jeroboam with a sword.

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, “Amos has plotted against you among the people of Israel: the country cannot handle everything he says.”

11 Amos says this: Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will definitely be taken captive from their land.

12 Amaziah told Amos, “You, the seer, go away to the land of Judah, eat your bread there, and give your messages there.”

13 Do not prophesy again in Bethel; it is the king’s temple and the royal palace.

14 Amos replied to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; I was a shepherd and I picked sycamore fruit.”

15 God chose me as I tended the sheep and God told me, “Go, speak my words to the people of Israel.”

16 Listen now to God’s message: You say, “Do not speak against Israel, and do not say anything against the family of Isaac.”

17 So God says: Your wife will be unfaithful in the city, your sons and daughters will be killed with swords, your land will be split up, and you will die in a dirty land. Israel will definitely be taken as prisoners out of their land.