Amos 7

¹ This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me: it was a swarm of locusts at the time when the second crop was starting to grow, a swarm of full-grown locusts, when the king’s cutting was over.

² They were about to devour all the greenstuff in the land, but I said, ‘Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you. How can Jacob survive, being so small?’

³ And Yahweh relented; ‘This shall not happen’ said Yahweh.

⁴ This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me: the Lord Yahweh himself summoning fire in punishment; it had devoured the great Abyss [*a] and was already encroaching on the land.

⁵ Then I said, ‘Stop, Lord Yahweh, I beg you. How can Jacob survive, being so small?’

⁶ And Yahweh relented; ‘This will not happen either’ said the Lord Yahweh.

⁷ This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me: a man standing by a wall, plumb-line in hand.

⁸ ‘What do you see, Amos?’ Yahweh asked me. ‘A plumb-line’ I said. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Look, I am going to measure my people Israel by plumb-line; no longer will I overlook their offences.

⁹ The high places of Isaac are going to be ruined, the sanctuaries of Israel destroyed, and, sword in hand, I will attack the House of Jeroboam.’

¹⁰ Amaziah the priest of Bethel then sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows. ‘Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country can no longer tolerate what he keeps saying.

¹¹ For this is what he says, “Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel go into exile far from its country”.’

¹² To Amos, Amaziah said, ‘Go away, seer; get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there.

¹³ We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’

¹⁴ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores:

¹⁵ but it was Yahweh who took me from herding the flock, and Yahweh who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel”.

¹⁶ So listen to the word of Yahweh. You say: “Do not prophesy against Israel, utter no oracles against the House of Isaac”.

¹⁷ Very well, this is what Yahweh says, “Your wife will be forced to go on the streets, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land be parcelled out by measuring line, and you yourself die on unclean soil and Israel will go into exile far distant from its own land”.’