Amos Accused, Answers

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel [site of the golden calf shrine], sent word to ^[a]Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words.^{(A) 11} For in this way Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” ¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, run for your life [from Israel] to the land of Judah [your own country] and eat bread and live as a prophet there! ¹³ But do not prophesy any longer at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal residence.”^(B)

¹⁴ Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet [by profession], nor am I a prophet’s son; I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. ¹⁵ But the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ ¹⁶ Now therefore, listen to the word of the Lord: You say, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city [when the ^[b]Assyrians capture Samaria] and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean and defiled [pagan] land, and Israel shall certainly go from its land into exile.’”