Amos 7

1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts at the beginning of the spring crop's coming up, and behold, it was the spring crop after the king's mowings.

2And when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”

3Yahweh relented concerning this: “It will not happen,” said Yahweh.

4This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it consumed the great deep and was consuming the land.

5Then I said, “Lord GOD, please cease. How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”

6Yahweh relented concerning this also: “It too shall not happen,” said the Lord GOD.

7This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing by a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

8And Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will not again pass by them.”

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

10Then 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 not able to bear all his words.”

11For this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile from its land.’

12Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there.”

13But at Bethel you must not prophesy any longer, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house.

14Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet; rather, I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.”

15But Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

16And now, hear the word of Yahweh: You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

17Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: ‘Your wife will prostitute herself in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be divided by measuring line; and you yourself will die on unclean land, and Israel will surely go into exile from its land.’