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 King Jeroboam 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#7:12 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#7:14 Or am not a prophet or the son of a prophet;#7:14 = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild#2Kg 2:3; 4:38; 2Ch 19:2 rather, I was#7:14 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#7:17 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.
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers