1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.

2When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"

3The LORD relented concerning this: "It shall not be," said the LORD.

4This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.

5Then I said, "O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"

6The LORD relented concerning this: "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

7This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

8And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them;

9the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."