Amos 7

1This is what Lord Yahweh showed me: he was forming swarms of locusts just as the late crop was beginning to come up—the late crop after the king’s mowing.

2When they had finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord Yahweh, please forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

3So Yahweh relented concerning this. “It will not happen,” said Yahweh.

4This is what Lord Yahweh showed me: Lord Yahweh was calling for judgment by fire. It devoured the great deep and was devouring the land.

5Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, please stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

6So Yahweh relented concerning this. “This will not happen either,” said Lord Yahweh.

7This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

8Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will no longer pass them by.

9The high places of Isaac will be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.

11For this is what Amos is saying: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile away from its land.’”

12Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there, and do your prophesying there.

13But never prophesy again at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”

14Amos answered Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, and I am not a prophet’s son. I am a herdsman, and I take care of sycamore figs.

15But Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

16Now then, hear the word of Yahweh. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

17Therefore this is what Yahweh says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in an unclean land. And Israel will surely go into exile away from its land.’”