• Warning through Visions

  • 1 This is what the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing.
  • 2 And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”
  • 3 The Lord 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 fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farmland.
  • 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”
  • 6 The Lord relented of this. “This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
  • 7 So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.
  • 8 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will not spare them any longer.
  • 9 “The high places of Isaac will become deserted, And the sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

  • Amos Accused; Gives an Answer

  • 10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to 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.
  • 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, “Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there!
  • 13 But do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”
  • 14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.
  • 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’
  • 16 So now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you prophesy against the house of Isaac.’
  • 17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”