Amos 7

New International Version

Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

7 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:^(A) He was preparing swarms of locusts^(B) after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. ²When they had stripped the land clean,^(C) I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive?^(D) He is so small!^(E)”

³So the Lord relented.^(F)

“This will not happen,” the Lord said.^(G)

⁴This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire;^(H) it dried up the great deep and devoured^(I) the land. ⁵Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!^(J)”

⁶So the Lord relented.^(K)

“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.^(L)

⁷This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,^[a] with a plumb line^[b] in his hand. ⁸And the Lord asked me, “What do you see,^(M) Amos?^(N)”

“A plumb line,^(O)” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.^(P)

⁹“The high places^(Q) of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries^(R) of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.^(S)”

Amos and Amaziah

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel^(T) sent a message to Jeroboam^(U) king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy^(V) against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.^(W) ¹¹For this is what Amos is saying:

“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,^(X)
away from their native land.’”^(Y)

¹²Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!^(Z) Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.^(AA) ¹³Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,^(AB) because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple^(AC) of the kingdom.^(AD)”

¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^(AE) nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.^(AF) ¹⁵But the Lord took me from tending the flock^(AG) and said to me, ‘Go,^(AH) prophesy^(AI) to my people Israel.’^(AJ) ¹⁶Now then, hear^(AK) the word of the Lord. You say,

“‘Do not prophesy against^(AL) Israel,
and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

¹⁷“Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wife will become a prostitute^(AM) 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 pagan^[c] country.
And Israel will surely go into exile,^(AN)
    away from their native land.^(AO)’”

Footnotes

Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain; also in verse 8.
Amos 7:17 Hebrew an unclean