1. This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: he was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up.
2. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, ‘Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!’
3. So the Lord relented.‘This will not happen,’ the Lord said.
4. This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: the Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.
5. Then I cried out, ‘Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!’
6. So the Lord relented.‘This will not happen either,’ the Sovereign Lord said.
7. This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb-line in his hand.
8. And the Lord asked me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’‘A plumb-line,’ I replied.Then the Lord said, ‘Look, I am setting a plumb-line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
9. ‘The high places of Isaac will be destroyedand the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.’