Amos 7:7-15

New International Version

⁷This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,^[a] with a plumb line^[b] in his hand. ⁸And the Lord asked me, “What do you see,^(A) Amos?^(B)”

“A plumb line,^(C)” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.^(D)

⁹“The high places^(E) of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries^(F) of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.^(G)”

Amos and Amaziah

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel^(H) sent a message to Jeroboam^(I) king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy^(J) against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.^(K) ¹¹For this is what Amos is saying:

“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,^(L)
away from their native land.’”^(M)

¹²Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer!^(N) Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.^(O) ¹³Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel,^(P) because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple^(Q) of the kingdom.^(R)”

¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet^(S) nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.^(T) ¹⁵But the Lord took me from tending the flock^(U) and said to me, ‘Go,^(V) prophesy^(W) to my people Israel.’^(X)