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.”

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The Vision of Locusts

This is what the Lord God showed me: Look! He was forming locust swarms as the latter plantings were just beginning to sprout. Indeed, the king had just taken his first fruit tax.[a] And so it came about that when the swarm[b] had finished eating the grass of the land, I was saying,

“Lord God, forgive—please!
    How will Jacob stand, since he is small?”

So the Lord relented from this. “This will not happen,” said the Lord.

The Vision of Fire

This is what the Lord God showed me: Look! The Lord God was calling for judgment by fire, and it was drying up the great depths of the ocean[c] and consuming the land. So I kept on saying,

“Lord God, forgive—please!
    How will Jacob stand, since he is so small?”

So the Lord relented from this. “This will not happen, either,” said the Lord God.

The Vision of the Plumb Line

This is what he showed me: Look! The Lord was standing upon a wall that stood straight and true, with a plumb line in his hand.[d] And the Lord was asking me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I replied, “A plumb line.”

So the Lord said,

“Look, I have set a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel.
        I will no longer spare them.
Isaac’s high places will be destroyed,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.
        I will rise in opposition to the house of Jeroboam with my[e] sword.”

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 7:1 So MT; LXX reads the locusts have one king, Gog.
  2. Amos 7:2 The Heb. lacks the swarm
  3. Amos 7:4 The Heb. lacks of the ocean
  4. Amos 7:7 Lit. wall by a plumb line
  5. Amos 7:9 The Heb. lacks my