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New Testament
Amos 7
The First Vision: The Locusts
71This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw that he was forming a locust swarm at the time when the late crops[] were beginning to sprout—the crops that were planted after the cuttings of hay for the king.
2When the swarm had finished consuming the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
3The Lord changed his decree about this. “It will not happen,” said the Lord.
The Second Vision: The Fire
4This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw the Lord God calling for a trial by fire, which devoured the great deep and started to consume the land.
5I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
6The Lord changed his decree about this. “This will not happen,” said the Lord God.
The Third Vision: The Plumb Line
7This is what he showed me: I saw the Lord standing by a wall that had been constructed with a plumb line. He had a plumb line in his hand.
8The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
Look, I am about to set up a plumb line next to my people Israel.
I will no longer overlook their sin.
9The high places of Isaac will be desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Amos and Amaziah
Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to endure all of his words. 11This is what Amos says: “Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its own soil.”
12Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Flee to the land of Judah. You may eat food and prophesy there. 13But you must never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the sanctuary of the king and the national temple.”
14Then Amos responded to Amaziah:
I was not a prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees. 15But the Lord took me from tending flocks, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
16But now, hear the word of the Lord, you who are saying, “Do not prophesy against Israel” and “Do not preach[] against the house of Isaac.”
17This is what the Lord says: “Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be parceled out with a measuring line, and as for you, you will die upon unclean soil. And Israel will certainly go into exile far away from its own soil.”
Footnotes
- 7:1 The late crops are the crops that grow at the time of the last spring rain, as the rainy season is coming to an end. Since the king has already collected all the taxes for the whole year from the first cuttings, if the spring rain fails, it is the people who will come up short.
- 7:10 Jeroboam II ruled from about 793 to 753 BC. This encounter was probably near the end of his reign.
- 7:16 Literally drip