⁷ This 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. ⁸ And the Lord asked me, “What do you see,^(A) Amos?^(B)”

“A plumb line,^(C)” I replied.

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

Amos and Amaziah

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

¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!^(N) Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.^{(O) 13} Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,^(P) because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple^(Q) of the kingdom.^(R)”

¹⁴ Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^(S) nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.^{(T) 15} But the Lord took me from tending the flock^(U) and said to me, ‘Go,^(V) prophesy^(W) to my people Israel.’^(X)

The Wise and Foolish Builders^(A)

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’^(B) and do not do what I say?^{(C) 47} As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice,^(D) I will show you what they are like. ⁴⁸ They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”