He said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “An end has come for my people Israel, because I will not overlook their sins anymore.
That beautiful crown of flowers is just a dying plant set on a hill above a rich valley. That city will be like the first fig of summer. Anyone who sees it quickly picks it and eats it.
I myself will live in Mizpah and will speak for you before the Babylonians who come to us here. Harvest the wine, the summer fruit, and the oil, and put what you harvest in your storage jars. Live in the towns you control.”
So say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will make them stop saying this, and nobody in Israel will use this saying anymore.’ But tell them, ‘The time is near when every vision will come true.
But the people of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, because they are not willing to listen to me. Yes, all the people of Israel are stubborn and will not obey.
Then he said to me, “Human, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the dark? Have you seen each man in the room of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us. The Lord has left the land.’ ”
He said to me, “Do you see, human? Is it unimportant that the people of Judah are doing the hateful things they have done here? They have filled the land with violence and made me continually angry. Look, they are insulting me every way they can.
He said to me, “Human, do you see what they are doing? Do you see how many hateful things the people of Israel are doing here that drive me far away from my Temple? But you will see things more hateful than these.”
The time of punishment has come, the time to pay for sins. Let Israel know this: You think the prophet is a fool, and you say the spiritual person is crazy. You have sinned very much, and your hatred is great.
The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “See, I will put a plumb line among my people Israel to show how crooked they are. I will not look the other way any longer.