Symbolic Visions and a Confrontation between Amos and a Priest

ca. 1200–332 BCE

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Prophesying in the Northern Kingdom of Israel at Bethel in the first half of the 8th century BCE, the Judean prophet Amos has a vision of God using a plumbline, a string with a weight at the bottom used to measure whether a wall stands straight or “plumb.” The use of visual metaphors is a recurring prophetic device, in this case conveying that God is measuring the character of the social fabric of the Israelite kingdom. The Northern Kingdom’s sins, the people’s “crookedness,” are described in Amos 4–5, and in this passage, the prophet condemns the northern sanctuary, its king, and its people, foretelling that God “will pardon them no more.”

In a typical rejection of the prophet and his message, Amaziah, the priest of the Northern Kingdom at Bethel, tries to send Amos back to Judea, from where he came. For a modern discussion of this passage, see Amos vs. Amaziah.

¹This is what my Lord God showed me: He was creating [a plague of] locusts at the time when the late-sown crops were beginning to sprout—^athe late-sown crops after the king’s reaping.^a²When it had finished devouring the herbage in the land, I said, “O Lord God, pray forgive. How will Jacob survive? He is so small.” ³The Lord relented concerning this. “It shall not come to pass,” said the Lord.

⁴This is what the Lord God showed me: Lo, my Lord God was summoning to contend by fire which consumed the Great Deep and was consuming the fields. ⁵I said, “Oh, Lord God, refrain! How will Jacob survive? He is so small.” ⁶The Lord relented concerning this. “That shall not come to pass, either,” said my Lord God.

⁷This is what He showed me: He was standing on a wall ^b checked with a plumb line^b and He was holding a plumb line. ⁸And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,”^c I replied. And my Lord declared, “I am going to apply a plumb line to My people Israel; I will pardon them no more. ⁹The shrines of Isaac shall be laid waste, and the sanctuaries of Israel reduced to ruins; and I will turn upon the House of Jeroboam with the sword.”

¹⁰Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you within the House of Israel. The country cannot endure the things he is saying. ¹¹For Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be exiled from its soil.’”

¹²Amaziah also said to Amos, “Seer, off with you to the land of Judah! Earn your living there, and do your prophesying there. ¹³But don’t ever prophesy again at Bethel; for it is a king’s sanctuary and a royal palace.” ¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah: “I am not a prophet,^d and I am not a prophet’s disciple. I am a cattle breeder^e and a tender of sycamore figs. ¹⁵But the Lord took me away from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ ¹⁶And so, hear the word of the Lord. You say I must not prophesy about the House of Israel or preach about the House of Isaac; ¹⁷but this, I swear, is what the Lord said: Your wife shall play the harlot in the town, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line. And you yourself shall die on unclean soil; for Israel shall be exiled from its soil.”

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Notes

The king’s reaping of fodder apparently occurred near the end of the rainy season, and whatever the locust destroyed after that could not be replaced for another year.

Or “destined for the pickax.”

Or “pickax.”

I.e., by profession.

Emendation yields “sheep breeder”; cf. the next verse and 1.1.