Amos 7-9
New American Standard Bible
Warning through Visions
7 This is what the Lord [a]God showed me, and behold, He was forming a (A)swarm of locusts [b]when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. 2 And it came about, [c]when it had (B)finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said,
“(C)Lord God, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is (D)small.”
3 The Lord (E)relented of this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 So the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by (F)fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the [d]farmland. 5 Then I said,
“(G)Lord God, please stop!
(H)How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
6 The Lord (I)relented of this.
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing [e]by a [f]vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “(J)What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold I am about to put a (K)plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel.
I will not [g](L)spare them any longer.
9 The (M)high places of Isaac will become deserted,
And the (N)sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.
Then I will (O)rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amos Accused; Gives an Answer
10 Then Amaziah, the (P)priest of Bethel, sent word to (Q)Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has (R)conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “(S)Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there! 13 But (T)do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a (U)sanctuary of the king and a royal [h]residence.”
14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the (V)son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a [i]grower of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from [j]following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go (W)prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 So now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You (X)shall not prophesy against Israel (Y)nor shall you [k]prophesy against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘Your (Z)wife will become a prostitute in the city, your (AA)sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die [l]upon (AB)unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity
8 This is what the Lord [m]God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And (AC)I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The (AD)end has come for My people Israel. I will not [n](AE)spare them any longer. 3 [o]The (AF)songs of the palace will turn to (AG)wailing on that day,” declares the Lord God. “The (AH)corpses will be many; in every place [p]they will throw them out. [q]Hush!”
4 Hear this, you who [r](AI)trample the needy, to put an end to the humble of the land, 5 saying,
“When will the (AJ)new moon [s]be over,
So that we may sell grain;
And the (AK)Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market,
To make the [t]ephah smaller and the [u]shekel bigger,
And to (AL)cheat with dishonest scales,
6 So as to (AM)buy the helpless for [v]money,
And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has (AN)sworn by the (AO)pride of Jacob,
“Indeed, I will (AP)never forget any of their deeds.
8 Because of this will the land not (AQ)quake,
And everyone who lives in it (AR)mourn?
Indeed, all of it will (AS)rise up like the Nile,
And it will be tossed about
And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
9 And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“That I will make the (AT)sun go down at noon,
And (AU)make the earth dark in [w]broad daylight.
10 Then I will (AV)turn your festivals into mourning,
And all your songs into songs of mourning;
And I will put (AW)sackcloth around everyone’s waist,
And [x]baldness on every head.
And I will make it (AX)like a time of mourning for an only son,
And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
But rather (AY)for hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will roam about to (AZ)seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it.
13 On that day the beautiful (BA)virgins
And the young men will (BB)faint from thirst.
14 As for those who swear by the [y](BC)guilt of Samaria,
And say, ‘As your god lives, (BD)Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of (BE)Beersheba lives,’
They will fall and (BF)not rise again.”
God’s Judgment Unavoidable
9 I saw the Lord standing beside the (BG)altar, and He said,
“Strike the pillar capitals so that the (BH)thresholds will shake,
And (BI)break them on the heads of them all!
Then I will (BJ)put to death the rest of them with the sword;
They will (BK)not have a fugitive who will flee,
Nor a survivor who will escape.
2 Though they dig into (BL)Sheol,
From there My hand will take them;
And though they (BM)ascend to heaven,
From there I will bring them down.
3 And though they hide on the summit of Carmel,
I will (BN)track them down and take them from there;
And though they (BO)hide themselves from My sight on the bottom of the sea,
I will command the (BP)serpent from there, and it will bite them.
4 And though they go into (BQ)captivity before their enemies,
From there I will command the sword and it will kill them,
And I will (BR)set My eyes against them for harm and not for good.”
5 The Lord [z]God of armies,
The One who (BS)touches the land so that it quakes,
And (BT)all those who live in it mourn,
And all of it rises up like the Nile
And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;
6 The One who builds His (BU)upper chambers in the heavens
And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth,
He who (BV)calls for the waters of the sea
And (BW)pours them out on the face of the earth,
(BX)The Lord is His name.
7 “Are you not as the sons of (BY)Ethiopia to Me,
You sons of Israel?” declares the Lord.
“Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt,
And the (BZ)Philistines from Caphtor and the (CA)Arameans from (CB)Kir?
8 Behold, the (CC)eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I will (CD)eliminate it from the face of the earth;
Nevertheless, I will (CE)not totally eliminate the house of Jacob,”
Declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I am commanding,
And I will (CF)shake the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a pebble will fall to the ground.
10 All the (CG)sinners of My people will die by the sword,
Those who say, ‘(CH)The catastrophe will not overtake or confront us.’
The Restoration of Israel
11 “On that day I will (CI)raise up the fallen [aa](CJ)shelter of David,
And wall up its (CK)gaps;
I will also raise up its ruins
And rebuild it as in the (CL)days of old;
12 (CM)So that they may [ab]possess the remnant of (CN)Edom
And all the [ac]nations who are (CO)called by My name,”
Declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When the (CP)plowman will overtake the reaper,
And the one who treads grapes will overtake him who sows the seed;
When the (CQ)mountains will drip grape juice,
And all the hills will come apart.
14 I will also (CR)restore the fortunes of My people Israel,
And they will (CS)rebuild the desolated cities and live in them;
They will also (CT)plant vineyards and drink their wine,
And make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will also plant them on their land,
And (CU)they will not be uprooted again from their land
Which I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- Amos 7:1 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 7:1 Lit at the beginning of the coming up of
- Amos 7:2 Lit if
- Amos 7:4 Lit plot of land
- Amos 7:7 Or on
- Amos 7:7 Lit wall of a plumb line
- Amos 7:8 Lit pass him by
- Amos 7:13 Lit house
- Amos 7:14 Or picker
- Amos 7:15 Lit behind
- Amos 7:16 Lit drivel
- Amos 7:17 Or in an unclean land
- Amos 8:1 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 8:2 Lit pass him by
- Amos 8:3 Lit They will howl the palace songs
- Amos 8:3 Lit he has thrown
- Amos 8:3 An order for sacred silence
- Amos 8:4 Or snap at
- Amos 8:5 Lit pass by
- Amos 8:5 About 1 cubic foot or 0.03 cubic meters
- Amos 8:5 About 0.5 oz. or 14 gm
- Amos 8:6 Lit silver
- Amos 8:9 Lit a day of light
- Amos 8:10 I.e., shaved as a sign of mourning
- Amos 8:14 Or Ashimah
- Amos 9:5 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 9:11 Heb sukkah; i.e., hut or dwelling
- Amos 9:12 Or take possession of
- Amos 9:12 Or Gentiles
Amos 7-9
New Living Translation
A Vision of Locusts
7 The Sovereign Lord showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king’s share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel[a] is so small.”
3 So the Lord relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.
A Vision of Fire
4 Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. 5 Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
6 Then the Lord relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign Lord.
A Vision of a Plumb Line
7 Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I answered, “A plumb line.”
And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. 9 The pagan shrines of your ancestors[b] will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel: “Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep! What he is saying is intolerable. 11 He is saying, ‘Jeroboam will soon be killed, and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.’”
12 Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: “Get out of here, you prophet! Go on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there! 13 Don’t bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king’s sanctuary and the national place of worship!”
14 But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one.[c] I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’ 16 Now then, listen to this message from the Lord:
“You say,
‘Don’t prophesy against Israel.
Stop preaching against my people.[d]’
17 But this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in this city,
and your sons and daughters will be killed.
Your land will be divided up,
and you yourself will die in a foreign land.
And the people of Israel will certainly become captives in exile,
far from their homeland.’”
A Vision of Ripe Fruit
8 Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”
Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. 3 In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
4 Listen to this, you who rob the poor
and trample down the needy!
5 You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over
and the religious festivals to end
so you can get back to cheating the helpless.
You measure out grain with dishonest measures
and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.[e]
6 And you mix the grain you sell
with chaff swept from the floor.
Then you enslave poor people
for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.
7 Now the Lord has sworn this oath
by his own name, the Pride of Israel[f]:
“I will never forget
the wicked things you have done!
8 The earth will tremble for your deeds,
and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
it will heave up, then sink again.
9 “In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth while it is still day.
10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
How very bitter that day will be!
11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border[g]
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 Beautiful girls and strong young men
will grow faint in that day,
thirsting for the Lord’s word.
14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba[h]—
they will all fall down,
never to rise again.”
A Vision of God at the Altar
9 Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said,
“Strike the tops of the Temple columns,
so that the foundation will shake.
Bring down the roof
on the heads of the people below.
I will kill with the sword those who survive.
No one will escape!
2 “Even if they dig down to the place of the dead,[i]
I will reach down and pull them up.
Even if they climb up into the heavens,
I will bring them down.
3 Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel,
I will search them out and capture them.
Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean,
I will send the sea serpent after them to bite them.
4 Even if their enemies drive them into exile,
I will command the sword to kill them there.
I am determined to bring disaster upon them
and not to help them.”
5 The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
touches the land and it melts,
and all its people mourn.
The ground rises like the Nile River at floodtime,
and then it sinks again.
6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens,
while its foundation is on the earth.
He draws up water from the oceans
and pours it down as rain on the land.
The Lord is his name!
7 “Are you Israelites more important to me
than the Ethiopians?[j]” asks the Lord.
“I brought Israel out of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Crete[k]
and led the Arameans out of Kir.
8 “I, the Sovereign Lord,
am watching this sinful nation of Israel.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,[l]”
says the Lord.
9 “For I will give the command
and will shake Israel along with the other nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
yet not one true kernel will be lost.
10 But all the sinners will die by the sword—
all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
A Promise of Restoration
11 “In that day I will restore the fallen house[m] of David.
I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins I will rebuild it
and restore its former glory.
12 And Israel will possess what is left of Edom
and all the nations I have called to be mine.[n]”
The Lord has spoken,
and he will do these things.
13 “The time will come,” says the Lord,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
will drip with sweet wine!
14 I will bring my exiled people of Israel
back from distant lands,
and they will rebuild their ruined cities
and live in them again.
They will plant vineyards and gardens;
they will eat their crops and drink their wine.
15 I will firmly plant them there
in their own land.
They will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- 7:2 Hebrew Jacob; also in 7:5. See note on 3:13.
- 7:9 Hebrew of Isaac.
- 7:14 Or I’m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet.
- 7:16 Hebrew against the house of Isaac.
- 8:5 Hebrew You make the ephah [a unit for measuring grain] small and the shekel [a unit of weight] great, and you deal falsely by using deceitful balances.
- 8:7 Hebrew the pride of Jacob. See note on 3:13.
- 8:12 Hebrew from north to east.
- 8:14 Hebrew the way of Beersheba.
- 9:2 Hebrew to Sheol.
- 9:7a Hebrew the Cushites?
- 9:7b Hebrew Caphtor.
- 9:8 Hebrew the house of Jacob. See note on 3:13.
- 9:11a Or kingdom; Hebrew reads tent.
- 9:11b-12 Greek version reads and restore its former glory, / so that the rest of humanity, including the Gentiles— / all those I have called to be mine—might seek me. Compare Acts 15:16-17.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
