Chapter 7

¹Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest. ²It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

³Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh.

⁴Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. ⁵Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

⁶Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.

⁷Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. ⁹The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam 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 Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”

¹²Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: ¹³but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”

¹⁴Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore trees; ¹⁵and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ ¹⁶Now therefore listen to the word of Yahweh: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ ¹⁷Therefore thus says Yahweh: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”