NIV
Amos 7
- 1<pb/>This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up.
- 2When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
- 3<pb/>So the LORD relented. <pb/>“This will not happen,” the LORD said.
- 4<pb/>This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.
- 5Then I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
- 6<pb/>So the LORD relented. <pb/>“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign LORD said.
- 7<pb/>This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,<f>[20]</f> with a plumb line<f>[21]</f> in his hand.
- 8And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” <pb/>“A plumb line,” I replied. <pb/>Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
- 9<pb/><t>“The high places of Isaac will be destroyed</t> <t>and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;</t> <t>with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”</t>
- 10<pb/>Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.
- 11For this is what Amos is saying: <pb/><t>“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,</t> <t>and Israel will surely go into exile,</t> <t>away from their native land.’ ”</t>
- 12<pb/>Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.
- 13Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
- 14<pb/>Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.
- 15But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
- 16Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, <pb/><t>“ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,</t> <t>and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’</t>
- 17<pb/>“Therefore this is what the LORD says: <pb/><t>“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,</t> <t>and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.</t> <t>Your land will be measured and divided up,</t> <t>and you yourself will die in a pagan<f>[22]</f> country.</t> <t>And Israel will surely go into exile,</t> <t>away from their native land.’ ”</t>