Amos 7:1-9

New International Version - UK

Locusts, fire and a plumb-line

7 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,^[a] with a plumb-line^[b] 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.