CHAPTER 7
This is what
the Lord
GOD
showed me:
He was preparing
swarms of locusts
just after
the king's
harvest,
as the late spring crop
was coming up.
And
when
the locusts had
eaten
every green plant
in the land,
I said,
“Lord
GOD,
please
forgive!
How
will Jacob
survive,
since
he
is so small?”
This is what
the Lord
GOD
showed me:
The Lord
GOD
was calling
for judgment
by fire.
It consumed
the great
deep
and devoured
the land.
This is what
He showed me:
Behold,
the Lord
was standing
by
a wall
true to plumb,
with a plumb line
in His hand.
“Amos,
what
do you
see?”
asked
the LORD.
“A plumb line,”
I replied.
“Behold,”
said
the Lord,
“I am setting
a plumb line
among
My people
Israel;
I will no
longer
spare them:
The high places
of Isaac
will be deserted,
and the sanctuaries
of Israel
will be laid waste;
and I will rise up
against
the house
of Jeroboam
with My sword.”
Then Amaziah
the priest
of Bethel
sent
word to
Jeroboam
king
of Israel,
saying,
“Amos
has conspired
against you
in the midst
of the house
of Israel.
The land
cannot
bear
all
his words,
for
this is what
Amos
has said:
‘Jeroboam
will die
by the sword,
and Israel
will surely
go into exile,
away from
her homeland.’”
And Amaziah
said
to
Amos,
“Go away,
you seer!
Flee
to
the land
of Judah;
earn your bread
there
and do your prophesying
there,
but
never
prophesy
at Bethel
again,
because
it is
the sanctuary
of the king
and the temple
of the kingdom.”
“I
was not
a prophet,”
Amos
replied,
“nor was I the son
of a prophet;
rather,
I
was a herdsman
and
a tender
of sycamore-fig trees.
But the LORD
took me
from following
the flock
and said
to me,
‘Go,
prophesy
to
My people
Israel.’
Now, therefore,
hear
the word
of the LORD.
You
say:
‘Do not
prophesy
against
Israel;
do not
preach
against
the house
of Isaac.’
Therefore,
this is what
the LORD
says:
‘Your wife
will become a prostitute
in the city,
and your sons
and daughters
will fall
by the sword.
Your land
will be divided
by a measuring line,
and you yourself
will die
on
pagan
soil.
And Israel
will surely
go into exile,
away from
her homeland.'"