The Lord Threatens to Bring a Famine by Locusts

7 This is what Adonay Yahweh showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts when the second crop was being harvested. It was the harvest that followed the harvest for the king. ² When the locusts had finished eating every plant in the land, I said, “Adonay Yahweh, please forgive us! How can the descendants of Jacob survive? There are so few of them.”

³ Yahweh changed his plans about this. “This won’t happen,” Yahweh said.

The Lord Threatens to Bring a Drought by Fire

⁴ This is what Adonay Yahweh showed me: Adonay Yahweh was calling for judgment by fire. The fire dried up the ocean and burned up the land. ⁵ Then I said, “Adonay Yahweh, please stop! How can the descendants of Jacob survive? There are so few of them.”

⁶ Yahweh changed his plans about this. “This won’t happen either,” Adonay Yahweh said.

The Lord Refuses to Overlook Israel’s Sin

⁷ This is what he showed me: Adonay was standing by a wall built with the use of a plumb line, and he had a plumb line in his hand. ⁸ Yahweh asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I answered, “A plumb line.”

Then Adonay said, “I’m going to hold a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will no longer overlook what they have done. ⁹ The worship sites of Isaac will be destroyed, and the holy places of Israel will be in ruins. I will attack Jeroboam’s heirs with my sword.”

Amaziah Opposes Amos

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, sent a message to King Jeroboam of Israel. It read, “Amos is plotting against you among the people of Israel. The country isn’t able to endure everything he is saying. ¹¹ Amos says that Jeroboam will be killed with a sword and that Israel cannot avoid being taken from its land into exile.”

¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer,^[a] run away to Judah! Eat there, and prophesy there! ¹³ But don’t ever prophesy again in Bethel, because this is the king’s holy place and the king’s palace.”

¹⁴ Amos responded, “I’m not a prophet, and I’m not a disciple of the prophets. I am a rancher and a grower of figs. ¹⁵ But Yahweh took me away from herding the flock and said to me, ‘Prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶ “Now listen to the word of Yahweh: You said, ‘Stop prophesying against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

¹⁷ “However, this is what Yahweh says: Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will be killed with swords. Your land will be surveyed and divided up, and you will die in an unclean^[b] land. Israel cannot avoid being taken from its land into exile.”