Amos 7

1 Thus the Lord YHWH showed me: And behold, he is forming locusts at the beginning of the coming up of the latter growth, and behold, the late crop after the mowings of the king.

2 And it came to pass, when it had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said, “Lord YHWH, forgive, please! How can Jacob arise, for he [is] small?”

3 YHWH relented concerning this: “It will not come to pass,” said YHWH.

4 Thus [has] the Lord YHWH shown me: And behold, the Lord YHWH was calling to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and it was devouring the portion.

5 And I said, “Lord YHWH, cease, please! How can Jacob arise, for he [is] small?”

6 YHWH relented concerning this: “It also will not come to pass,” said the Lord YHWH.

7 Thus He has shown me: And behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, and in His hand [was] a plumb line.

8 And YHWH said to me: “What [are] you seeing, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” And the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will not continue any longer to pass over him.

9 And the high places of Isaac will be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

10 And Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent [word] 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.

11 For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile away from his land!’”

12 And Amaziah said to Amos: “Seer, go! Flee for yourself to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

13 And at Bethel you will not continue to prophesy anymore, for it [is] the sanctuary of the king, and it [is] the house of the kingdom.”

14 And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I [was] not a prophet, nor [was] I the son of a prophet, but I [was] a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

15 And YHWH took me away from following the herd, and YHWH said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

16 And now, hear the word of YHWH: You are saying, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not drop against the house of Isaac.’

17 Therefore, thus says YHWH: ‘Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. And your land will be divided by a line and You will die in an unclean land, and Israel will surely go into exile away from his land!’”