Amos 7:1-9:4
1599 Geneva Bible
7 God showeth certain visions, whereby he signifieth the destruction of the people of Israel. 10 The false accusation of Amaziah, 12 His crafty counsel.
1 Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, he formed [a]grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth: and lo, it was in the latter growth [b]after the King’s mowing.
2 And when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, spare, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob? for he is small.
3 So the Lord [c]repented for this. It shall not be, saith the Lord.
4 ¶ Thus also hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, the Lord God called to judgment by fire, [d]and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob? for he is small.
6 So the Lord repented for this. This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
7 ¶ Thus again he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by line [e]with a line in his hand.
8 And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a line in the midst of my people Israel, and will pass by them no more.
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the temples of Israel shall be destroyed: and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 ¶ [f]Then Amaziah the Priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away captive out of their own land.
12 Also [g]Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou the Seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat thy bread, and prophesy there.
13 But prophesy no more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no [h]Prophet, neither was I a Prophet’s son, but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of wild figs.
15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and speak nothing against the house of Isaac.
17 Therefore thus saith the Lord, [i]Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.
8 1 Against the rulers of Israel. 7 The Lord sweareth. 11 The famine of the word of God.
1 Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of [j]summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel, I will pass by them no more.
3 And the songs of the Temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: many dead bodies shall be in every place: they shall cast them forth with [k]silence.
4 Hear this, O ye that [l]swallow up the poor, that ye may make the needy of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the [m]new month be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, and make [n]the Ephah small and the shekel great, and falsify the weights by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes: yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat.
7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely, I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn, that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out, and [o]drowned as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And in that day, saith the Lord God, I will even cause the [p]Sun to go down at noon: I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning: and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the Land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North even unto the East shall they run to and fro to seek the [q]word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men perish for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin [r]of Samaria, and that say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth, and [s]the manner of Beersheba liveth, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
9 Threatenings against the Temple, 2 And against Israel. 11 The restoring of the Church.
1 I saw the Lord standing upon the [t]Altar, and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in pieces, even the [u]heads of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them, shall not flee away: and he that escapeth of them, shall not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into the hell, thence shall mine hand take them: though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence: and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the [v]serpent, and he shall bite them.
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
Footnotes
- Amos 7:1 To devour the land: and he alludeth to the invading of the enemies.
- Amos 7:1 After the public commandment for mowing was given: or as some read, when the king’s sheep were shorn.
- Amos 7:3 That is, stayed this plague at my prayer.
- Amos 7:4 Meaning, that God’s indignation was inflamed against the stubbornness of this people.
- Amos 7:7 Signifying that this should be the last measuring of the people, and that he would defer his judgment no longer.
- Amos 7:10 That is, when Amos had prophesied that the king should be destroyed: for the wicked Priest more for hatred he bare to the Prophet than for love toward the king, thought this accusation sufficient to condemn him, whereas none other could take place.
- Amos 7:12 When this instrument of Satan was not able to compass his purpose by the king, he assayed by another practice, that was, to fear the Prophet, that he might depart, and not reprove their idolatry there openly, and so hinder his profit.
- Amos 7:14 Thus he showeth by his extraordinary vocation, that God had given him a charge, which he must needs execute.
- Amos 7:17 Thus God used to approve the authority of his Prophets, by his plagues and judgments against them which were malicious enemies, Jer. 28:12 and 29:21, 25, as this day he doeth against them that persecute the ministers of his Gospel.
- Amos 8:2 Which signified the ripeness of their sins, and the readiness of God’s judgments.
- Amos 8:3 There shall be none left to mourn for them.
- Amos 8:4 By staying the sale of food, and necessary things which you have gotten into your own hands, and so cause the poor to spend quickly that little that they have, and at length for necessity to become your slaves.
- Amos 8:5 When the dearth was once come they were so greedy of gain, that they thought the holy day to be an hindrance unto them.
- Amos 8:5 That is, the measure small, and the price great.
- Amos 8:8 That is, the inhabitants of the land shall be drowned, as Nile drowneth many when it overfloweth.
- Amos 8:9 In the midst of their prosperity, I will send great affliction.
- Amos 8:12 Whereby he showeth that they shall not only perish in body, but also in soul for lack of God’s word, which is the food thereof.
- Amos 8:14 For the idolaters did use to swear by their idols: which here he calleth their sin, as the Papists yet do by theirs.
- Amos 8:14 That is, the common manner of worshipping, and the service or religion there used.
- Amos 9:1 Which was at Jerusalem: for he appeared not in the idolatrous places of Israel.
- Amos 9:1 Both the chief of them and also the common people.
- Amos 9:3 He showeth that God will declare himself enemy unto them in all places, and that his elements and all creatures shall be enemies to destroy them.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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