Study

Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line

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This is what the Lord G od showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings). ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord G od, forgive, I beg you!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

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The L ord relented concerning this;

“It shall not be,” said the L ord.

 

⁴ This is what the Lord G od showed me: the Lord G od was calling for a shower of fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,

“O Lord G od, cease, I beg you!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

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The L ord relented concerning this;

“This also shall not be,” said the Lord G od.

 

⁷ This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the L ord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“See, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by;

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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 Jeroboam with the sword.”

 

Amaziah Complains to the King

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.’ ”

¹² And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; ¹³but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴ Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, ¹⁵and the L ord took me from following the flock, and the L ord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

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“Now therefore hear the word of the L ord.

You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

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Therefore thus says the L ord:

‘Your wife shall become a prostitute 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.’ ”