Amos 7
7
First Vision: Locusts
1The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts # Ex 10:12-15; Dt 28:38,42; Jl 1:4 at the time the spring crop first began to sprout — after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, # Ex 10:15 I said, “Lord God, please forgive! # Jr 14:7,20-21; Ezk 9:8; 11:13 How will Jacob survive since he is so small? ” # Is 37:4; Jr 42:2
3The Lord relented concerning this. # Jr 26:19; Hs 11:8 “It will not happen,” He said.
Second Vision: Fire
4The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. # Am 1:3–2:5 It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! # Ps 85:4; Jl 2:17 How will Jacob survive since he is so small? ”
6The Lord relented concerning this. # Ps 106:45; Jnh 3:10 “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.
Third Vision: A Plumb Line
7He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos? ” # Jr 1:11; Am 8:2
I replied, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; # Is 28:17; 34:11; Lm 2:8 I will no longer spare them: # Am 8:2
9Isaac’s high places # 2Kg 17:9-13; Hs 10:8 will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins; # Lv 26:31; Is 63:18; Jr 51:51
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”
Amaziah’s Opposition
10Amaziah the priest # 1Kg 12:31-32; 13:33 of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you # Jr 26:8-11; 38:4 right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’ ” # Am 5:27
12Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! # Mt 8:34 Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living # Lit Eat bread and give your prophecies there, 13but don’t ever prophesy # Am 2:12; Ac 4:18 at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary # 1Kg 12:29; Am 7:9 and a royal temple.”
14So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was # Or am not a prophet or the son of a prophet; # = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild # 2Kg 2:3; 4:38; 2Ch 19:2 rather, I was # Or am a herdsman, # Am 1:1 and I took care of sycamore figs. 15But the Lord took me from following the flock # 2Sm 7:8 and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ ” # Jr 1:7; Ezk 2:3-4
16Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:
Do not prophesy # Am 2:12 against Israel;
do not preach # Mc 2:6 against the house of Isaac.
17Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, # Hs 4:13-14
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, # Jr 14:16
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan # Lit unclean soil, # 2Kg 17:6; Ezk 4:13; Hs 9:3
and Israel will certainly go into exile # Jr 36:29-31
from its homeland.
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Amos 7: HCSB
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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Amos 7
7
To Die Homeless and Friendless
1-2 God, my Master, showed me this vision: He was preparing a locust swarm. The first cutting, which went to the king, was complete, and the second crop was just sprouting. The locusts ate everything green. Not even a blade of grass was left.
I called out, “God, my Master! Excuse me, but what’s going to come of Jacob? He’s so small.”
3 God gave in.
“It won’t happen,” he said.
* * *
4 God showed me this vision: Oh! God, my Master God was calling up a firestorm. It burned up the ocean. Then it burned up the Promised Land.
5I said, “God, my Master! Hold it—please! What’s going to come of Jacob? He’s so small.”
6 God gave in.
“All right, this won’t happen either,” God, my Master, said.
* * *
7 God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.
8-9 God said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then my Master said, “Look what I’ve done. I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I’ve spared them for the last time. This is it!
“Isaac’s sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed,
Israel’s unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces.
I’m raising my sword against the royal family of Jeroboam.”
10Amaziah, priest at the shrine at Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel:
“Amos is plotting to get rid of you; and he’s doing it as an insider, working from within Israel. His talk will destroy the country. He’s got to be silenced. Do you know what Amos is saying?
11‘Jeroboam will be killed.
Israel is headed for exile.’”
12-13Then Amaziah confronted Amos: “Seer, be on your way! Get out of here and go back to Judah where you came from! Hang out there. Do your preaching there. But no more preaching at Bethel! Don’t show your face here again. This is the king’s chapel. This is a royal shrine.”
14-15But Amos stood up to Amaziah: “I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, ‘Go preach to my people Israel.’
16-17“So listen to God’s Word. You tell me, ‘Don’t preach to Israel. Don’t say anything against the family of Isaac.’ But here’s what God is telling you:
Your wife will become a whore in town.
Your children will get killed.
Your land will be auctioned off.
You will die homeless and friendless.
And Israel will be hauled off to exile, far from home.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.