Daily Bread

Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

7 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:^(A) He was preparing swarms of locusts^(B) after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. ² When they had stripped the land clean,^(C) I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive?^(D) He is so small!^(E)”

³ So the Lord relented.^(F)

“This will not happen,” the Lord said.^(G)

⁴ This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire;^(H) it dried up the great deep and devoured^(I) the land. ⁵ Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!^(J)”

⁶ So the Lord relented.^(K)

“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.^(L)

⁷ This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,^[a] with a plumb line^[b] in his hand. ⁸ And the Lord asked me, “What do you see,^(M) Amos?^(N)”

“A plumb line,^(O)” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.^(P)

Amos and Amaziah

¹⁰ Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel^(T) sent a message to Jeroboam^(U) king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy^(V) against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.^{(W) 11} For this is what Amos is saying:

¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!^(Z) Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.^{(AA) 13} Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,^(AB) because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple^(AC) of the kingdom.^(AD)”

¹⁴ Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^(AE) nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.^{(AF) 15} But the Lord took me from tending the flock^(AG) and said to me, ‘Go,^(AH) prophesy^(AI) to my people Israel.’^{(AJ) 16} Now then, hear^(AK) the word of the Lord. You say,

¹⁷ “Therefore this is what the Lord says: