Amos 7

God our Lord showed me a vision. In the vision, he was forming a swarm of locusts {to destroy our crops}. This was happening right after the workers had harvested the king’s share of the hay, when the second crop of the season was just starting to grow.

In the vision, when the locusts had finished eating everything green in the land, I cried out, “God our Lord, please forgive {us}! We people of Jacob are weak and helpless; we will not be able to survive this!”

So God changed his mind about this. God said, “This will not happen.” \*

Then God our Lord showed me another vision. In it, God our Lord was summoning fire to punish {his people}. The fire dried up the great deep waters and then was burning up the land.

Then I cried out, “God our Lord, please stop! We people of Jacob will not be able to survive this, because we are weak and helpless!”

So God changed his mind about this also. Lord God said, “This will not happen, either.” \*

Then God showed me another vision. In it, I saw the Lord standing beside a wall. Someone had built the wall very straight, using a plumb line. God was holding a plumb line in his hand.

God asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” I replied, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Look, I am about to test my people the Israelites to see if they are living rightly, just as a builder uses a plumb line to see if a wall is straight. I will no longer hold back from punishing them {for their sin}. \* 9 I will destroy the hilltop shrines where the descendants of Isaac worship {idols}, and I will demolish the other holy places in Israel, and I will send men with swords to end the dynasty of King Jeroboam.” \*

Then Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, sent {a message} to Jeroboam, the king of Israel. {In the message} he said, “Amos is plotting against you {right here} among the people of Israel. He is saying so much against you that the people of this land cannot bear to hear it.

In fact, this is what Amos keeps saying, ‘Someone will kill Jeroboam with a sword, and an army will force the people of Israel to leave their own land and become exiles in a foreign country.’” \*

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Run away to the country of Judah! Earn your living there, and do your prophesying there!

But you have prophesied {here} at Bethel for the last time, because this is the king’s holy place; it is a royal temple.” \*

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a {professional} prophet, and I do not belong to any group of prophets. Instead, I take care of sheep, and I also take care of sycamore-fig trees.

But God took me away from tending the flock, and God said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people in Israel.’ \*

So now listen to what God has to say {to you}. You keep telling me, ‘Do not prophesy against the people of Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac!’

Therefore, this is what God says {to you}, ‘{When your enemies come,} your wife will become a prostitute in this city, and they will kill your sons and your daughters with their swords, and they will measure your land with a rope and divide it up {among themselves}. As for you, you will die in a foreign, pagan country, and your enemies will certainly force the people of Israel to become exiles, far from their own land.’” \*