First Vision: Locusts

The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts(A) at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay. When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land,(B) I said, “Lord God, please forgive!(C) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?” (D)

The Lord relented concerning this.(E) “It will not happen,” he said.

Second Vision: Fire

The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire.(F) It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. Then I said, “Lord God, please stop!(G) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord relented concerning this.(H) “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.

Third Vision: A Plumb Line

He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” (I)

I replied, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel;(J) I will no longer spare them:(K)

Isaac’s high places(L) will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;(M)
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”

Amaziah’s Opposition

10 Amaziah the priest(N) of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you(O) right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11 for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’”(P)

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!(Q) Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living[a] and give your prophecies there, 13 but don’t ever prophesy(R) at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary(S) and a royal temple.”

14 So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was[b] not a prophet or the son of a prophet;[c](T) rather, I was[d] a herdsman,(U) and I took care of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock(V) and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”(W)

16 Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:

Do not prophesy(X) against Israel;
do not preach(Y) against the house of Isaac.

17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,(Z)
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,(AA)
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan[e] soil,(AB)
and Israel will certainly go into exile(AC)
from its homeland.

Footnotes

  1. 7:12 Lit Eat bread
  2. 7:14 Or am
  3. 7:14 = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild
  4. 7:14 Or am
  5. 7:17 Lit unclean

A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said,[a] “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,(A)
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.(B)
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath[b] of the Lord blows on them;[c]
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,(C)
but the word of our God remains forever.”(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 40:6 DSS, LXX, Vg read I said
  2. 40:7 Or wind, or Spirit
  3. 40:7 Lit it

Fulfill Your Ministry

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge(A) the living and the dead,(B) and because of his appearing and his kingdom:(C) Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine,(D) but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.(E) But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist,(F) fulfill your ministry.

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