Amos 7
17 verses
Amos reports three visions of judgment—locusts devouring crops, a consuming fire, and a plumb line held by the LORD—each testing the prophet's willingness to intercede and accept God's verdict. For the first two visions, Amos intercedes on Israel's behalf ("O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray! How can Jacob stand?"), and God relents, showing that intercessory prayer can delay or avert judgment. Yet with the third vision—the plumb line—God declares that He will no longer pass by Israel, indicating that the period of possible reprieve has ended and judgment is now fixed and irreversible. The vision of the plumb line symbolizes God's measurement of Israel against the standard of covenant righteousness, and Israel has failed this test so completely that destruction is now inevitable. The chapter also records an important historical encounter: when the priest Amaziah of Bethel hears Amos's prophecy against the northern kingdom and its king, he orders the prophet to cease prophesying and return to Judah, rejecting the prophetic word and attempting to silence God's voice. Amos's response—that he is not a prophet by profession but a shepherd and dresser of figs called by God—asserts the divine compulsion and authority behind his prophecy, establishing that no human authority can silence the authentic word of the LORD.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
I love how this passage doesn't shy away from the difficulty of obedience. I think this is a call to trust beyond what w...
1
Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
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2
And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
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3
The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.
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4
Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
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5
Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
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6
The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
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7
Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
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8
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
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9
And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
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10
Then Amaziah the priest of Beth–el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
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11
For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
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12
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
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13
But prophesy not again any more at Beth–el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
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14
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
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15
And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
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16
Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.
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17
Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.
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