The Prophet Amos

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 7 -

(Joel 2:1–11)

Yahweh our God showed me in a vision that he was going to send locusts to destroy our crops. It was going to happen right after the king’s share of the hay had been harvested and before the rest of the hay was ready to be harvested.

In the vision I saw those locusts come, and they ate everything that was green. Then I cried out, “Yahweh our Lord, please forgive us! We Israelite people are very helpless; how will we be able to survive?”

So Yahweh changed his mind and said, “That will not happen.”

Then this is what Yahweh our Lord showed me in another vision: He was calling to a fire to come and punish his people. In the vision I saw that the fire had dried up the water under all the land and also had burned everything on the land.

Then I cried out again, “Yahweh our Lord, I plead with you, please stop this! We Israelite people are very helpless; how will we be able to survive?”

So Yahweh changed his mind again, and said, “That also will not happen.”

Then Yahweh showed me another vision. I saw him standing beside a wall. It was very straight because it had been built using a plumb line. Yahweh had the plumb line in his hand.

Yahweh asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” I replied, “A plumb line.” Then Yahweh said, “Look, I am going to use a plumb line among my Israelite people, to show that they are like a wall that is not straight. I will not change my mind again about punishing them.

The hilltop places of idolatry where the descendants of Isaac worship idols will be destroyed. And the other important holy places in Israel will also be destroyed. And I will enable your enemies to attack your people with swords, and they will get rid of King Jeroboam and all his descendants.”

Amaziah Accuses Amos

Then Amaziah the priest at Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel. In the message he said, “Amos is plotting against you among the Israelite people. I am worried that the people of this country will not know that he is wrong.

This is what he is saying: ’Jeroboam will soon be killed by someone using a sword, and the people of Israel will be exiled.’”

Then Amaziah came to me and said, “You prophet, get out of here! Go back to the country of Judah! Do your prophesying there if you want to earn money!

Do not prophesy anymore here at Bethel, because this is where the national temple, the king’s temple, is!”

I replied to Amaziah, “I was previously not a prophet and my father was not a prophet; I was a shepherd. I also took care of sycamore fig trees.

But Yahweh took me away from taking care of my sheep, and he said to me, ‘Go to Israel and prophesy to my people there!’

You said to me, ’Do not prophesy and say that terrible things will happen to the people of Israel; stop saying those things!’

So listen to what Yahweh says about you: ’Your wife will become a prostitute in this very city; your sons and daughters will die because their enemies will kill them. Others will measure your land and divide it up among themselves; and you yourself will die in a foreign country. And the people of Israel will certainly have to leave their country and go into exile.’”

(Joel 2:1–11)

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest.

When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

The LORD relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says the LORD.

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land.

Then I said, “Lord GOD, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

The LORD relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord GOD.

Thus he showed me: behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

The LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amaziah Accuses Amos

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”

Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there,

but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs;

and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Now therefore listen to the LORD’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’

Therefore the LORD says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”