Warning Visions
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1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, 2he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
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When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord GOD, please forgive! 3How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"
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4The LORD relented concerning this: "It shall not be," said the LORD.
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5This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling 6for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.
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Then I said, "O Lord GOD, please cease! 7How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"
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8The LORD relented concerning this: "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.
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9This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with 10a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.
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And the LORD said to me, 11"Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting 12a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; 13I will never again pass by them;
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14the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against 15the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
Amos Accused
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Then Amaziah 16the priest of Bethel sent to 17Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has 18conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
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For thus Amos has said, "'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and 19Israel must go into exile away from his land.'"
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And Amaziah said to Amos, 20"O seer, go, flee away 21to the land of Judah, and 22eat bread there, and prophesy there,
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but 23never again prophesy at Bethel, for 24it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."
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Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, 25"I wasa no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but 26I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.
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27But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
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28Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. "You say, 29'Do not prophesy against Israel, and 30do not preach against the house of 31Isaac.'
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32Therefore thus says the LORD: "'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land 33shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and 34Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)