Amos 7

7 ¹ This is what the Sovereign Father showed me: he was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the late crop began to sprout — the late crop that comes up after the king's mowings. ² And when they had finished devouring the vegetation of the land, I said, "Sovereign Father, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" ¹ 1 v2 When the prophet pleads, our Father listens and holds back the judgment — the heart behind his sovereignty is mercy, not eagerness to destroy.

³ Our Father relented concerning this. "It will not happen," said our Father.

⁴ This is what the Sovereign Father showed me: the Sovereign Father was summoning a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was consuming the land. ⁵ Then I said, "Sovereign Father, please stop! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"

⁶ Our Father relented concerning this. "This also will not happen," said the Sovereign Father.

⁷ This is what he showed me: the Sovereign Father was standing beside a perfectly straight wall, with a plumb line in his hand. ² 2 v7 A plumb line is a weighted cord that tests whether a wall stands straight — here a picture of our Father measuring whether his people's lives are true. ⁸ And our Father said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Sovereign Father said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by."

⁹ "The hilltop shrines of Isaac will be laid waste and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

Amaziah Silences the Prophet

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. ¹¹ For this is what Amos has said: 'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from its own land.'"

¹² And Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer! Flee away to the land of Judah. Earn your living there, and prophesy there. ¹³ But never prophesy again at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary and a temple of the kingdom."

¹⁴ Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore figs. ¹⁵ But our Father took me from following the flock, and our Father said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

¹⁶ Now then, hear the word of our Father. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.'

¹⁷ Therefore this is what our Father says: 'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided up with a measuring line, and you yourself will die in an unclean land, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from its own land.'"