[1] Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the
beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the
latter growth after the king's mowings. [2] When they had finished eating
the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee! How
can Jacob stand? He is so small!" [3] The LORD repented concerning this;
"It shall not be," said the LORD. [4] Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold,
the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great
deep and was eating up the land. [5] Then I said, "O Lord GOD, cease, I
beseech thee! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" [6] The LORD repented
concerning this; "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD. [7] He showed
me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line,
with a plumb line in his hand. [8] And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do
you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am
setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again
pass by them; [9] the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the
sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the
house of Jerobo'am with the sword." [10] Then Amazi'ah the priest of Bethel
sent to Jerobo'am 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, `Jerobo'am shall die by the sword, and
Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" [12] And Amazi'ah said to
Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and
prophesy there; [13] but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the
king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." [14] Then Amos
answered Amazi'ah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a
herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, [15] and the LORD took me from
following the flock, and the LORD said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people
Israel.' [16] "Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, `Do not
prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.'
[17] Therefore thus says the LORD: `Your wife shall be a harlot in the
city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your
land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean
land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"