Amos 7

¹ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was forming a locust swarm when the late growth began to come up (the late growth after the king's mowing).

² While they were eating all the grass in the land, I said: Forgive, O Lord GOD! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!

³ And the LORD repented of this. "It shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

⁴ Then the Lord GOD showed me this: he called for a judgment by fire. It had devoured the great abyss, and was consuming the land,

⁵ when I said: Cease, O Lord GOD! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!

⁶ The LORD repented of this. "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

⁷ Then the Lord GOD showed me this: he was standing by a wall, plummet in hand.

⁸ The LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" And when I answered, "A plummet," the Lord said: See, I will lay the plummet in the midst of my people Israel; I will forgive them no longer.

⁹ The high places of Isaac shall be laid waste, and the sanctuaries of Israel made desolate; I will attack the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

¹⁰ Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel: "Amos has conspired against you here within Israel; the country cannot endure all his words.

¹¹ For this is what Amos says: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be exiled from its land."

¹² To Amos, Amaziah said: "Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying,

¹³ but never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple."

¹⁴ Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.

¹⁵ The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

¹⁶ Now hear the word of the LORD!" You say: prophesy not against Israel, preach not against the house of Isaac.

¹⁷ Now thus says the LORD: Your wife shall be made a harlot in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; Your land shall be divided by measuring line, and you yourself shall die in an unclean land; Israel shall be exiled far from its land.