Amos 7

Amos sees three visions of coming judgment: locusts, fire, and a plumb line. Twice he pleads and the LORD relents, but the third time the verdict stands. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then tries to silence Amos, and Amos answers that he speaks only because God sent him.

Amos 7:1

God shows Amos a vision of locusts being formed just after the king’s cutting, when the late crop was coming up. This was the growth that would feed the people through the year. The judgment is aimed at their very food supply.

BSA: preparing (“forming, shaping”): The same word is used of a potter shaping clay, so the locust plague is something God deliberately makes. harvest (“mowings, the time of cutting”): The king had taken his share first, so the plague strikes what was left for the people.

Hebrew: יוֹצֵר (yotser, H3335) — “forming, shaping.” This is the word for a potter or maker. God is not merely allowing the locusts. He is shaping them for his purpose.

See also: Joel 1:4.

Amos 7:2

The land is stripped bare, and Amos cries out for forgiveness. He does not defend Israel’s innocence. He appeals to its weakness: Jacob is small and cannot stand. Here the prophet is an intercessor, standing between the people and God.

BSA: forgive (“pardon, show mercy”): Amos asks for pardon, not just a delay. He knows the real problem is Israel’s guilt. small (“weak, insignificant”): He rests his plea on Israel’s helplessness, not on any merit.

See also: Exodus 32:11-14.

Amos 7:3

The LORD relents, and the plague will not come. Scripture often speaks this way of God. He responds to prayer and shows mercy, and his purposes toward his people are not cold or fixed against them. Prayer matters.

BSA: relented (“repented, had pity”): The word carries the sense of compassion: God’s heart is moved, and he turns from the threatened harm.

Hebrew: נִחַם (nicham, H5162) — “relented, was moved to compassion.” The word speaks of deep feeling and a change of course, not of God admitting a mistake. It shows his readiness to be merciful.

See also: Jonah 3:10.

Amos 7:4

The second vision is worse. A judgment of fire is summoned, so fierce that it dries up the great deep, the ocean beneath the earth, and then eats the land itself. Nothing is left that could resist it.

BSA: great deep (“the vast, unexplored ocean, tehom”): This is the deep waters of creation. Even that vast reserve cannot stop the fire. consumed (“totally destroyed”): The fire leaves nothing partial. The destruction is complete.

See also: Deuteronomy 32:22.

Amos 7:5-6

Amos prays again with the same plea, and again the LORD relents. God hears his servant a second time. The mercy shown here prepares us for what comes next: when mercy stops, it is because the people have refused to turn back.

BSA: stop (“cease, come to an end”): This time Amos asks that the fire simply cease. He is pleading for the whole judgment to end.

Amos 7:7

The third vision is quiet. The Lord stands beside a wall that was built straight, holding a plumb line. A plumb line is a weighted cord that shows whether a wall is truly vertical. God has come to test his people against a straight standard.

BSA: plumb line (“a weighted cord, a measuring tool”): It is a builder’s tool that exposes any lean in a wall without needing an opinion.

Hebrew: אֲנָךְ (anakh, H594) — “plumb line.” This rare word appears only in this passage. It gives a single picture of God measuring Israel by what is right.

Amos 7:8

God asks Amos what he sees, and Amos names the plumb line. God then explains it. He is setting his standard in the middle of Israel, and the people lean away from it. This time he will not pass over their guilt.

BSA: plumb line (“a standard of righteousness”): The line stands for God’s own righteous will, against which the nation’s life is judged. spare (“show mercy, have compassion on”): The mercy of the first two visions is now withdrawn, because the people have not repented.

See also: Isaiah 28:17; 2 Kings 21:13.

Amos 7:9

The judgment is spelled out. The shrines where Israel worshiped will be left empty and ruined, and God will rise against the dynasty of Jeroboam. Places and powers the people trusted will not protect them.

BSA: high places (“elevations, cultic platforms”): These were raised worship sites, here tied to Israel’s false and mixed religion. sanctuaries (“holy places, temples”): The holy places that Israel treated as safe will themselves be destroyed.

Amos 7:10-11

Amaziah, the priest who served at the king’s shrine, reports Amos to the king as a traitor. He twists Amos’s message. Amos had spoken of the king’s house falling by the sword, and Amaziah says Amos told of the king’s own death. The truth is made to look like rebellion.

BSA: conspired (“plotted, rebelled”): Amaziah treats a message from God as a political plot.

Amos 7:12-13

Amaziah tells Amos to go home to Judah and earn his living there. He treats prophecy as a paid trade, and Bethel as the king’s private chapel. He wants a religion that serves the throne and never confronts it.

BSA: seer (“one who receives visions from God”): Amaziah says it with scorn, but the word itself describes someone who truly sees what God shows. sanctuary (“royal, king’s”): Amaziah calls Bethel the king’s place, not God’s. That shows where his loyalty lies.

Hebrew: חֹזֶה (chozeh, H2374) — “seer, one who sees visions.” The word fits the chapter, which is built around what Amos sees. Amaziah uses it as an insult.

See also: 1 Kings 12:28-33.

Amos 7:14-15

Amos answers that he was no professional prophet. He was a herdsman who also cared for sycamore-fig trees, and God took him from that work and sent him to Israel. He speaks because he was called, not because he chose the job or is paid for it.

BSA: took (“caring for, tending”): God took Amos from the care of sheep. The one who tended a flock was sent to speak to God’s flock. prophesy (“speak under the influence of the divine spirit”): Prophecy here means speaking what God has put into the mouth, not offering personal opinion.

See also: Amos 1:1; 2 Samuel 7:8.

Amos 7:16-17

Amos now turns the word on Amaziah. Because the priest tried to silence God’s message, his own family will suffer: his wife, his children, and his land. He himself will die in a foreign country. The chapter ends with the sentence on Israel standing.

BSA: pagan (“unclean, polluted”): Exile means dying in a land outside God’s own land, which is a sign of how far Amaziah has fallen. measuring line (“cord, rope”): Another line appears: the surveyor’s cord will divide Amaziah’s land among others.

See also: Amos 5:27; 2 Kings 17:6.