Amos 7 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The Lord showed this to me: He was making locusts {\cf2\super [85]} at the time the second crop began growing. It was the second crop after the king’s cutting \{of the first crop\}.

² The locusts ate all the grass in the country. After that I said, “Lord my Master, I beg you, forgive us! Jacob {\cf2\super [86]} can’t survive! He is \{too\} small!”

³ Then the Lord changed his mind about this. The Lord said, “That thing will not happen.”

⁴ The Lord my Master showed these things to me: \{I\} saw the Lord God calling for judgment by fire. The fire destroyed the Great Deep. The fire was beginning to eat up the land.

⁵ But I said, “Lord God, stop, I beg you! Jacob {\cf2\super [87]} can’t survive! He is \{too\} small!”

⁶ Then the Lord changed his mind about this. The Lord God said, “That thing will not happen either.”

⁷ The Lord showed me this: The Lord stood by a wall with a plumbline {\cf2\super [88]} in his hand. (The wall had been marked with a plumbline.)

⁸ The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

⁹ Isaac’s high places {\cf2\super [89]} will be destroyed. Israel’s holy places will be made into a pile of rocks. I will attack and kill Jeroboam’s {\cf2\super [90]} family with swords.”

¹⁰ Amaziah, a priest at Bethel, {\cf2\super [91]} sent this message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel: “Amos is making plans against you. He is trying to make the people of Israel fight against you. \{He has been speaking so much that\} this country can’t hold all his words.

¹¹ Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and the people of Israel will be taken as prisoners out of their country.’”

¹² Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, {\cf2\super [92]} go down to Judah and eat there. {\cf2\super [93]} Do your preaching there.

¹³ But don’t prophesy {\cf2\super [94]} any more here at Bethel! This is Jeroboam’s holy place. This is Israel’s temple!”

¹⁴ Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am not a professional prophet. And I am not from a prophet’s family. I keep cattle and take care of sycamore trees.

¹⁵ \{I was a shepherd\} and the Lord took me from following the sheep. The Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶ So listen to the Lord’s message. You tell me, ‘Don’t prophesy {\cf2\super [95]} against Israel. Don’t preach against Isaac’s family.’

¹⁷ But the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute {\cf2\super [96]} in the city. Your sons and daughters will be killed with swords. Other people will take your land and divide it among themselves. And you will die in a foreign {\cf2\super [97]} country. The people of Israel will definitely be taken from this country as prisoners.’”