Amos 7:1-10

1 God, my Master, showed me this vision: He was preparing a locust swarm. The first cutting, which went to the king, was complete, and the second crop was just sprouting.

2 The locusts ate everything green. Not even a blade of grass was left. I called out, "God, my Master! Excuse me, but what's going to come of Jacob? He's so small."

3 God gave in. "It won't happen," he said.

4 God showed me this vision: Oh! God, my Master God was calling up a firestorm. It burned up the ocean. Then it burned up the Promised Land.

5 I said, "God, my Master! Hold it - please! What's going to come of Jacob? He's so small."

6 God gave in. "All right, this won't happen either," God, my Master, said.

7 God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.

8 God said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" I said, "A plumb line." Then my Master said, "Look what I've done. I've hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I've spared them for the last time. This is it!

9 Isaac's sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed, Israel's unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces. I'm raising my sword against the royal family of Jeroboam.

10 Amaziah, priest at the shrine at Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel: "Amos is plotting to get rid of you; and he's doing it as an insider, working from within Israel. His talk will destroy the country. He's got to be silenced. Do you know what Amos is saying?

Amos 7:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 7

In this and the two following chapters are the visions of Amos, in number five; three of which are contained in this chapter, and with which it begins. The first is of the grasshoppers or locusts eating up the later grass of the land, which are stopped at the intercession of the prophet, Am 7:1-3; the second is of fire the Lord called for to contend by, whose devouring flames are made to cease by the same interposition, Am 7:4-6; and the other is of the plumbline, signifying the utter destruction of the people of Israel, according to the righteous judgment of God, Am 7:7-9; upon the delivery of which prophecies and visions, the priest of Bethel forms a charge against the prophet to the king; and advises Amos to flee into Judea, and prophesy there, and not at Bethel, being willing to be rid of him at any rate, Am 7:10-13; next follows the prophet's vindication of himself showing his divine call to the prophetic office, and his mission and express order he had from the Lord to prophesy unto Israel, Am 7:14,15; and concludes with a denunciation of divine judgments on the priest's family, and upon the whole land of Israel, Am 7:16,17.