1. This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the spring crop—after the cutting of the king’s hay.
2. When the locust-swarm had finished devouring the vegetation of the land, I said: “Adonai Elohim, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
3. Adonai relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” Adonai said.
4. This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, Adonai Elohim was calling for the trial by fire, and it would have devoured the great deep, and it would have devoured the territory.
5. But I said: “My Lord Adonai, stop, please! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
6. Adonai relented concerning this. “This also shall not happen,” says my Lord Adonai.
7. This is what He has revealed to me: Behold, my Lord was standing by a vertical wall, and in His hand was a plumb line.
8. Then Adonai said to me: “What do you see, Amos?” I said: “A plumb line.” Then my Lord said: “Behold, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel— I will no longer pass over them.
9. So the high places of Isaac will become desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10. Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying: “Amos has been conspiring against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words.
11. For this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go captive from his land.’”
12. Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Seer, go away! Flee back to the land of Judah. Eat bread there, and prophesy there.
13. But at Bethel you are not to prophesy any more—for it is a royal sanctuary and a house of the kingdom.”
14. So Amos responded and said to Amaziah: “I am no prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet. Rather, I am a shepherd tending fig trees.
15. But Adonai took me from following the flock and Adonai said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’
16. So now, hear the word of Adonai: You are saying, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17. Therefore, this is what Adonai says: ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land divided up by a measuring line. Now, as for you— you will die in an unclean land, and Israel will surely be led away captive out of its land.’”