^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 second crop was 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 destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam."

^10. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.

^11. For this is what Amos is saying: "`Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.'"

^12. Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.

^13. Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom."

^14. Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.

^15. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

^16. Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, "`Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.'

^17. "Therefore this is what the LORD says: "`Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan [1] country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.'"