7:1 | 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 second crop was coming up. |
7:2 | When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!" |
7:3 | So the LORD relented. "This will not happen," the LORD said. |
7:4 | 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. |
7:5 | Then I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!" |
7:6 | So the LORD relented. "This will not happen either," the Sovereign LORD said. |
7:7 | This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. |
7:8 | And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. |
7:9 | "The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam." |
7:10 | 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. |
7:11 | For this is what Amos is saying: "'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.'" |
7:12 | 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. |
7:13 | Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." |
7:14 | Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. |
7:15 | But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' |
7:16 | Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, "'Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.' |
7:17 | "Therefore this is what the LORD says: "'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.'" |
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