Amos 7
Open in the reader1This is what the Lord He-Who-Is showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.
2And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord He-Who-Is, please forgive! How will Heel-Grabber survive, since he is so small?”
3So He-Who-Is relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He-Who-Is said.
4This is what the Lord He-Who-Is showed me: The Lord He-Who-Is was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.
5Then I said, “Lord He-Who-Is, please stop! How will Heel-Grabber survive, since he is so small?”
6So He-Who-Is relented from this plan. “It will not happen either,” said the Lord He-Who-Is.
7This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.
8“Burden-Bearer, what do you see?” asked He-Who-Is. “A plumb line,” I replied. “Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Strives-with-God; I will no longer spare them:
9The high places of He-Laughs will be deserted, and the sanctuaries of Strives-with-God will be laid waste; and I will rise up against the house of The-People-Increase with My sword.”
10Then He-Who-Is-Strong the priest of House-of-God sent word to The-People-Increase king of Strives-with-God, saying, “Burden-Bearer has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Strives-with-God. The land cannot bear all his words,
11for this is what Burden-Bearer has said: ‘The-People-Increase will die by the sword, and Strives-with-God will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”
12And He-Who-Is-Strong said to Burden-Bearer, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Praised; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.
13But never prophesy at House-of-God again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.”
14“I was not a prophet,” Burden-Bearer replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.
15But He-Who-Is took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Strives-with-God.’
16Now, therefore, hear the word of He-Who-Is. You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Strives-with-God; do not preach against the house of He-Laughs.’
17Therefore this is what He-Who-Is says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Strives-with-God will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”