CCChurch CommonsBible Reader
Translation

Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect

Amos 7

Locusts and fire

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: he was forming a swarm of locusts just as the late crop began to grow—the crop after the king’s mowing. When they had finished eating the land’s vegetation, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small.” The LORD relented about this. “It will not happen,” the LORD said. This is what the Lord GOD showed me: the Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and was consuming the land. I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand? He is so small.” The LORD relented about this. “This too will not happen,” the Lord GOD said.

The plumb line

This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. The LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A plumb line.” The Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel. I will no longer pass them by. Isaac’s high places will be desolate,
and Israel’s sanctuaries laid waste.
I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amos and Amaziah

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its land.’” Amaziah told Amos, “Seer, go! Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there, and prophesy there. But do not prophesy at Bethel anymore. It is the king’s sanctuary, the kingdom’s temple.” Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son. I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD told me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now hear the word of the LORD. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel; do not pour out words against the house of Isaac.’ So this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city; your sons and daughters will fall by the sword; your land will be divided by a measuring line. You will die on unclean ground, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its land.’”