7:1 This is what the Lord ①GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts ②when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing.
▷ ①Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD, and so throughout the ch ②Lit at the beginning of the coming up of
7:2 And it came about, ①when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said,
“Lord GOD, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
▷ ①Lit if
7:3 The LORD relented of this.
“It shall not be,” said the LORD.
7:4 So the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the ①farmland.
▷ ①Lit plot of land
7:5 Then I said,
“Lord GOD, please stop!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
7:6 The LORD relented of this.
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.
7:7 So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing ①by a ②vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.
▷ ①Or on ②Lit wall of a plumb line
7:8 And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold I am about to put a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel.
I will not ①spare them any longer.
▷ ①Lit pass him by
7:9 The high places of Isaac will become deserted,
And the sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.
Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
7:10 Then 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 unable to endure all his words.
7:11 For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ”
7:12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there!
7:13 But do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal ①residence.”
▷ ①Lit house
7:14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a ①grower of sycamore figs.
▷ ①Or picker
7:15 But the LORD took me from ①following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’
▷ ①Lit behind
7:16 So now hear the word of the LORD: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you ①prophesy against the house of Isaac.’
▷ ①Lit drivel
7:17 Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die ①upon unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ”
▷ ①Or in an unclean land