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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Amos 7: MSG
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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.
Amos 7
7
Vision of the Locusts
1Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. 2And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:
“O Lord God, forgive, I pray!
#Is. 51:19Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
3So #Deut. 32:36; Jer. 26:19; Hos. 11:8; Amos 5:15; Jon. 3:10; (James 5:16)the Lord relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
Vision of the Fire
4Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.5Then I said:
“O Lord God, cease, I pray!
#Amos 7:2, 3Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
6So the Lord relented concerning this.
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
Vision of the Plumb Line
7Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
“Behold, #2 Kin. 21:13; Is. 28:17; 34:11; Lam. 2:8I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
#Mic. 7:18I will not pass by them anymore.
9#Gen. 46:1; Hos. 10:8; Mic. 1:5The high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
#2 Kin. 15:8–10; Amos 7:11I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amaziah’s Complaint
10Then Amaziah the #1 Kin. 12:31, 32; 13:33priest of #1 Kin. 13:32; Amos 4:4Bethel sent to #2 Kin. 14:23Jeroboam 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 thus Amos has said:
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
And Israel shall surely be led away #Amos 5:27; 6:7captive
From their own land.’ ”
12Then Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go, you seer!
Flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
13But #Amos 2:12; Acts 4:18never again prophesy at Bethel,
#1 Kin. 12:29, 32; Amos 7:9For it is the king’s sanctuary,
And it is the royal residence.”
14Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:
“I was no prophet,
Nor was I #1 Kin. 20:35; 2 Kin. 2:5; 2 Chr. 19:2a son of a prophet,
But I was a #2 Kin. 3:4; Amos 1:1; Zech. 13:5sheepbreeder
And a tender of sycamore fruit.
15Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock,
And the Lord said to me,
‘Go, #Amos 3:8prophesy to My people Israel.’
16Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
And #Deut. 32:2; Ezek. 21:2; Mic. 2:6do not spout against the house of Isaac.’
17“Therefore#Jer. 28:12; 29:21, 32 thus says the Lord:
#Is. 13:16; Lam. 5:11; Hos. 4:13; Zech. 14:2‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey line;
You shall die in a #2 Kin. 17:6; Ezek. 4:13; Hos. 9:3defiled land;
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.