Amos 7-8
Holman Christian Standard Bible
First Vision: Locusts
7 The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts(A) at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land,(B) I said, “Lord God, please forgive!(C) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”(D)
3 The Lord relented concerning this.(E) “It will not happen,” He said.
Second Vision: Fire
4 The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire.(F) It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop!(G) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”
6 The Lord relented concerning this.(H) “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.
Third Vision: A Plumb Line
7 He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”(I)
I replied, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel;(J) I will no longer spare them:(K)
9 Isaac’s high places(L) will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;(M)
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”
Amaziah’s Opposition
10 Amaziah the priest(N) of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you(O) right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11 for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’”(P)
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!(Q) Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living[a] and give your prophecies there, 13 but don’t ever prophesy(R) at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary(S) and a royal temple.”
14 So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was[b] not a prophet or the son of a prophet;[c](T) rather, I was[d] a herdsman,(U) and I took care of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock(V) and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’”(W)
16 Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:
17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,(Z)
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,(AA)
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan[e] soil,(AB)
and Israel will certainly go into exile(AC)
from its homeland.
Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit
8 The Lord God showed me this: A basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”(AD)
I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”(AE)
The Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel;(AF) I will no longer spare them.(AG) 3 In that day the temple[f] songs(AH) will become wailing”(AI)—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!(AJ) Silence!”(AK)
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy(AL)
and do away with the poor of the land,(AM)
5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain,(AN)
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat?(AO)
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price[g]
and cheat with dishonest scales.(AP)
6 We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals(AQ)
and even sell the chaff!”
7 The Lord has sworn(AR) by the Pride of Jacob:[h](AS)
I will never forget all their deeds.(AT)
8 Because of this, won’t the land quake(AU)
and all who dwell in it mourn?(AV)
All of it will rise like the Nile;(AW)
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.(AX)
9 And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
I will make the sun go down at noon;(AY)
I will darken the land in the daytime.(AZ)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning(BA)
and all your songs into lamentation;(BB)
I will cause everyone[i] to wear sackcloth(BC)
and every head to be shaved.(BD)
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son(BE)
and its outcome like a bitter day.
11 Hear this! The days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(BF)
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
seeking the word of the Lord,(BG)
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women,(BH)
the young men also, will faint from thirst.(BI)
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria(BJ)
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”(BK)
or “As the way[j][k] of Beer-sheba lives”(BL)—
they will fall, never to rise again.(BM)
Footnotes
- Amos 7:12 Lit Eat bread
- Amos 7:14 Or am
- Amos 7:14 = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild
- Amos 7:14 Or am
- Amos 7:17 Lit unclean
- Amos 8:3 Or palace
- Amos 8:5 Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great
- Amos 8:7 = the Lord or the promised land
- Amos 8:10 Lit every loin
- Amos 8:14 LXX reads god
- Amos 8:14 Or power
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