Amos 7:7-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer;(A)
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”(B)
Amaziah Complains to the King
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.(C) 11 For thus Amos has said,
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’ ”(D)
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”(E)
14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am[a] no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am[b] a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees,(F) 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’(G)
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Amos 8:4-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(A)
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(B)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(C)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(D)
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(E)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.