And it came to pass, when they had wholly eaten the grass of the land, that I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos has just watched the Lord prepare a swarm of locusts that eats the land bare. He does not argue — he prays. His plea rests on nothing in Israel except its weakness. Can a nation this small ever stand again?
This cry belongs to the first of three visions of judgment. One commentator lays out the sequence and ties it to history:
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1–3) the creeping locusts, next (verses 4–6) fire, and last (verses 7–9) a plumbline. The plumbline showed the strict measure applied to mark their sin. When patience had worn itself out, further delay would have been agreement with evil. It seems these troubles came to pass in history under Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who swept the kingdom away at the end.
The prophet confesses before he asks. He does not defend Israel. He admits it has nothing left to stand on — and that is the prayer God answers:
In the first vision Amos saw how the Lord prepared locusts (not grasshoppers, as the older translation has it). They began their destructive work, just as they did in the day of Joel. Then Amos interceded for the sinful nation: "O Lord GOD, forgive, I beg You, by whom shall Jacob rise, for he is small?" He confessed and pleaded for forgiveness. He acknowledged their helplessness. The Lord is well pleased with such a spirit, and the praying prophet received the answer from the Lord: "It shall not be, says the LORD."
The ESV asks "How can Jacob stand?"; older translations ask "by whom shall Jacob arise?" Either way, Jacob cannot rise by himself.
Judgment was already under way, and one man's prayer stopped it. A writer traces the power of that prayer back past Amos to the Spirit of Christ in the prophets:
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The intercession of the prophet stopped the blow. That intercession was the work of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, and it owed its power to His sufferings; see Psalm 18.
Amos gets his answer, yet the chapter does not end in relief. The delay shows God's patience; it does not cancel His word:
Amos 7 shows the patience of Jehovah. The prophet interceded for Jacob, and Jehovah relented of the evil He was bringing on them; still judgement must follow.
The next verse says the Lord relented. Does that mean God changed His mind? A commentator explains the same wording:
It does not mean a change of mind on God's part, but a change of action caused by a change of mind on man's part. God sends warnings to man so that man may change his mind and repent. Then God may change His action from judgment to mercy. God has not changed His mind. God's mind has always been toward mercy. He is "a gracious God and merciful." But man's sin must bring down the righteous judgment of God, even though He is slow to anger.
Amos carries what he prays about. His name and his work point beyond him:
In chapter 7 Amos himself becomes a foreshadowing of Christ as the great Intercessor. The name Amos means "burden." In his own measure he carried the burden of Israel's sin and misery on his heart. In this he pictured in advance the One who did the same in a far deeper way. The prophet, acknowledging the nation's smallness and helplessness, begs God on its behalf. His prayer is effective, but men reject his service and testimony.
The same writer sums up how Amos presents Christ, using this verse's own word:
As Israel's Intercessor, begging God for them, so that at least some might "arise" (or "stand").
- Small. Amos pleads no merit and no strength. Israel's helplessness is the whole ground of his appeal.
- Confessed. He asks forgiveness before he asks for relief — and that spirit pleases God.
- Stopped. The prayer halts a judgment already in motion. Its power is the Spirit of Christ working through the prophet.
- Relented. God's action changes, not His mind; warning exists so that mercy may replace judgment.
- Delayed. God holds the blow back; He does not cancel it. The plumbline still comes, and only the true Intercessor makes Jacob stand.
Jehovah repented for this It shall not be, said Jehovah.
God shows Amos a swarm of locusts stripping the land bare, and Amos pleads for a people too small to survive it. The Lord's answer raises the hardest question in the chapter: how can God change His mind, and what does one man's prayer do?
The relenting in verse 3 is only the first step. One commentator maps the chapter and marks where God's patience runs out:
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last. First (verses 1-3) come the grasshoppers or creeping locusts. Next (verses 4-6) comes fire. Last (verses 7-9) comes a plumbline, which showed the strict measure applied to mark their sins. Once patience had run out, further delay would have meant going along with evil. In history, it seems, these troubles came through Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who in the end swept away the kingdom.
What Amos prays matters as much as that he prays. He does not argue that Israel deserves better; he admits they have nothing left to stand on:
In the first vision Amos saw how the Lord prepared locusts (not grasshoppers, as the older King James Version has it). They started their destructive work, just as they did in the day of Joel. Then Amos interceded on behalf of the sinful nation: "O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" He confessed and pleaded for forgiveness, acknowledging their helplessness. The Lord is well pleased with such a spirit. So the praying prophet received the answer from the Lord: "It shall not be," said the LORD.
The word "relented" needs care. One writer explains it by putting the change in man, not in God:
Repentance in man means to "think again," a change of thought or a change of mind. But when Scripture says God repents, it does not mean a change of mind on God's part. It means a change of action caused by a change of mind on man's part. God sends warnings to man so that man may change his mind and repent. Then God may change His action from judgment to mercy. God has not changed His mind. God's mind has always been toward mercy: "You are a gracious God and merciful." But man's sin must bring down the righteous judgment of God, even though He is slow to anger.
A second writer separates God's settled purposes from His announced threats:
God is not a man, that He should change His mind about His eternal and unchangeable purposes and unconditional promises. Those "are irrevocable." But in His grace He may relent — that is, not carry out a threatened judgment. Nineveh is an example. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in a human way, because we are weak.
The man who prays is part of the picture. One writer reads his name and his work together:
In chapter 7 Amos himself becomes a foreshadowing of Christ as the great Intercessor. The name Amos means "burden." In his measure he carried the burden of Israel's sin and sorrow on his heart. So he pictures the One who did the same in a far deeper way. The prophet admits that the nation is small and helpless, and he pleads with God for it. His prayer is effective.
Another writer traces the power of that prayer back past Amos himself:
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The prophet's intercession had stopped the scourge. That is to say, it was the intercession of the Spirit of Christ which worked in the prophets. That intercession owed its power to His sufferings (see Psalm 18).
God held the locusts back, but the story does not end there. A second vision follows, of fire, and the same writer marks the limit of intercession:
The prophet's intercession held this judgment back too. But when the time came for judgment by the Assyrian, pictured by the locusts and the fire, no intercession could change it.
- Seen — God shows Amos the locusts before they finish their work. The vision warns in time. It is the first of three rising judgments that end with the plumbline.
- Said — his prayer is confession, not defence. He owns the nation's helplessness and asks how so small a people could stand.
- Stopped — God relents. His eternal purposes never move. But He may choose not to carry out a threatened judgment. The change of action follows a change in man.
- Sustained — the power of the prayer was not the prophet's own. Amos means "burden." Commentators see in him a picture of the great Intercessor, and they trace his plea to the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets.
- Spent — the delay was not a cancellation. Once patience had run out, longer delay would have meant going along with evil. No intercession could turn the Assyrian back.
Thus did the Lord Jehovah shew unto me; and behold, the Lord Jehovah called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and ate up the inheritance.
Amos sees a second picture of judgment: fire that burns up the great deep and then starts on the land itself. Two questions follow — who calls for this fire, and what can stand between it and the people?
This fire is the second of three visions, and each one is worse than the last. One writer ties them to invasions that really happened.
In Amos 7 a series of three judgments on Israel is set out, rising in severity: first (verses 1-3) by the locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline, which showed the strict measure applied to mark their sin. When patience had worn itself out, waiting any longer would have meant turning a blind eye to evil. It seems these troubles came about in history through Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who swept the kingdom away in the end.
The first vision was locusts. This one is worse, because the fire swallows even water.
He saw a furious fire sweeping everything before it, so that it even devoured the great deep, the floods of water. This stands for a more severe judgment than the previous one. The prophet's intercession held this judgment back too. But when the time came for judgment by the Assyrian, pictured by the locusts and the fire, no intercession could change it. Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser finally put an end to the sinful ten-tribe kingdom.
Fire is not a random image. The same fire that destroys evil also marks what God accepts.
God was revealed in fire early on. This showed the searching character of His righteous judgment, whether He accepts what is good or condemns what is evil... Moses told Israel, "the LORD your God is a consuming fire." When Aaron began his service in the tabernacle, fire came out "from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar." Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire, and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them. When Elijah stood alone against the prophets of the false god Baal, God proved him right by burning up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones with fire from heaven... The general idea in "fire" is that of judgment.
Amos sees the Lord GOD Himself calling for this fire. The call comes only after long restraint. More than once prayer had stopped the blow at the last moment.
God had waited patiently for a long time. More than once He had been on the point of handing Israel over to judgment. The prophet's intercession had stopped the blow. That intercession was the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets, and it owed its power to His sufferings (see Psalm 18). But now the Lord would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand, and nothing would turn Him aside.
As the fire begins to eat the land, Amos does not defend Israel. He pleads for it. That prayer points beyond the prophet himself.
In chapter 7 Amos himself becomes a foreshadowing of Christ as the great Intercessor. The name Amos means "burden." In his own measure he carried the burden of Israel's sin and sorrow on his heart. So he pictures the One who did the same in a far deeper way. The prophet admits that the nation is small and helpless, and he pleads with God for it. God answers his prayer, but men reject his service and his testimony, and the priest looks to the king to rid the land of him.
- Patience. God had waited long. More than once He had nearly given Israel up, so this fire comes after restraint, not instead of it.
- Fire. In the Bible fire stands for judgment. It tests all it touches, accepting the good and condemning the evil.
- Escalation. Each vision is worse than the last: locusts, then fire, then the plumbline that measures sin exactly.
- Prayer. A prophet whose name means "burden" carries the nation's sin on his heart and asks God to stop. God answers him, and in that he pictures Christ.
- Limit. Patience has an end. When it ran out, the Assyrian kings did what the visions had warned of.
Then said I, O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos sees a second vision of judgment, a fire. Again he breaks in to plead with God, and his only argument is that Jacob is too small to rise again.
This second stroke was heavier than the first, and it ended the same way.
He saw a furious fire sweeping everything before it, so that it even devoured the great deep, the floods of water. This is a more severe judgment than the previous one. The prophet's intercession held back this judgment too.
One writer lays out all three visions and shows where God's patience ends.
Amos 7 sets out a rising scale of three judgments on Israel: first (verses 1-3) by the creeping locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline. The plumbline showed the strict measure applied to mark their sins. When patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been going along with evil.
God answers, and the fire stops. One writer traces the power behind that prayer back past Amos himself.
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The prophet interceded — that is to say, the Spirit of Christ which worked in the prophets. That intercession owed its power to His sufferings (see Psalm 18), and it had stopped the scourge. But now the Lord would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand, and nothing would turn Him aside.
Amos pleads what Israel lacks, not what it deserves. He himself had no official standing either.
The prophet acknowledges the nation's smallness and helplessness, and begs God on its behalf. His prayer is effective, but men reject his service and testimony… He was not officially a prophet, being only a herdsman, but God was with him. So those who rejected him were fighting against God.
Amos asks how Jacob can rise. Israel's later history answered him, royal house by royal house.
With the house of Jehu Israel would fall. And that is what took place… Israel had been raised up again after each earlier fall, but not after the house of Jehu had fallen.
Writers have seen in Amos a picture of a greater Intercessor. His own name carries the thought:
In chapter 7 Amos himself becomes a foreshadowing of Christ as the great Intercessor. The name Amos means "burden." In his measure he carried the burden of Israel's sin and misery on his heart. So he pictured in advance the One who did the same in a far deeper way.
The same writer summarises what Christ is in this book, and fastens on the very word Amos uses here:
As Israel's Intercessor, begging God for them, that at least some might "arise" (or "stand," as other translations have it).
Twice God hears the plea and stops the blow. But the door of prayer does not stay open forever.
Let us remember that the Lord is "slow to anger"… Poor Jeremiah could tell God how he had stood in the gap to turn His anger away from the people. Then the Lord said to him, "Do not pray for this people," and the anger took its course. For intercession is always the place for the one who has the mind of God. It is where he makes a way for God's love, until the place for intercession is closed.
The delays were real. They were also temporary.
When the time came for judgment by the Assyrian, pictured by the locusts and the fire, no intercession could change it. Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser finally made an end of the sinful kingdom of the ten tribes.
- Burden. Amos carries Israel's sin and misery on his heart. In his measure he pictures the One who bore that burden far more deeply.
- Smallness. His only argument is that Jacob has no strength to rise again — helplessness, not merit, is what he lays before God.
- Mercy. The fire stops. God had spared Israel before, and the prayer of His servant holds back the blow again.
- Limit. Patience is not endless. Once it runs out, more delay would side with the evil, and the third vision brings the measuring-line.
- Now. Intercession is the place for anyone who shares God's mind. That place stays open for a time, and then it shuts.
Jehovah repented for this This also shall not be, said the Lord Jehovah.
Amos is watching his second vision. First came locusts. Now comes a fire that dries up the deep and starts to eat the land. Amos pleads again, and again God turns back. Two questions follow. How can prayer change God's mind? And how long can it keep doing so?
The chapter sets its visions in order, and this fire is not the last of them.
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the one before. First (verses 1-3) come the locusts. Next (verses 4-6) comes fire. Last (verses 7-9) comes a plumbline, which showed the strict measure used to mark their sins. When patience had run out, further delay would have meant sharing in the evil.
The fire is the middle step. It is worse than the locusts, and the same thing stops it.
He saw a furious fire sweeping everything before it. It even devoured the great deep, the floods of water. This is a more severe judgment than the previous one. The prophet's intercession held this judgment back too.
Older translations say God "repented." The ESV says He "relented," and in Numbers 23:19 it says God is not a man who would "change his mind." That word needs care. Scripture denies that God changes the way a man changes. It still says He turns when man turns.
God "is not a man … that he should repent" (Num. 23:19), but He does repent when man changes, especially when man repents.
A man asked, and the disaster did not come. One writer weighs what that says about prayer.
In more cases than one you can see the enormous power of prayer — enormous because God-given. It can even turn the mighty God from His purpose when He means to deal in judgment. Think of that! … In Jeremiah 26 we see how readily the Lord turns from wrath to mercy and pardon. Nothing brings about this wonderful change in Him like pleading and intercession. And if He is so ready to pardon, how much more ready to bless when we ask Him!
Amos does not argue that Israel deserves rescue. He pleads that Jacob is too small to stand. One writer sees a deeper likeness in the man himself.
In chapter 7 Amos himself becomes a foreshadowing of Christ as the great Intercessor. The name Amos means "burden." In his own measure he carried the burden of Israel's sin and misery on his heart. In this he pictured the One who did the same in a far deeper way. The prophet admits the nation's smallness and helplessness, and begs God on its behalf. His prayer is effective, but men reject his service and testimony. He was not an official prophet, being only a herdsman, but God was with him. So those who rejected him were fighting against God.
Amos was not praying out of his own resources.
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The intercession of the prophet had stopped the scourge. That intercession was the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets, and it owed its power to His sufferings (see Psalm 18).
The relief here is real, but it is only a delay. Two verses later the plumbline comes out, and there is no third reprieve.
But now the LORD would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand. Nothing would turn Him aside.
One writer traces the same limit in Jeremiah's life.
Jeremiah could appeal to God, and tell Him how he had stood in the gap to turn His anger away from the people. Then the Lord said to him, "Do not pray for this people," and the anger took its course. For intercession is always the place of the one who has the mind of God. It makes a way for God's love, until the place for intercession is closed.
Historically the delay ran out. What the locusts and the fire pictured arrived in flesh and blood, and by then no prayer altered it — Gaebelein points to Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser, who "finally made an end of the sinful ten-tribe kingdom."
- Patience — the fire is the second of three warnings. God is giving more time, not ignoring the sin.
- Prayer — a herdsman asks, and the fire stops. That power is great because God gave it.
- Pleading — Amos claims no merit for Israel. He pleads how small they are, and carries their misery as his own burden.
- Person — behind the prophet's prayer, commentators see the Spirit of Christ. Amos himself pictures the great Intercessor, whose service men rejected.
- Plumbline — the relief is only a delay. When the measuring-line comes out, the place for intercession is closed, and nothing turns God aside.
Thus did he shew unto me; and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.
Amos has already seen two judgments — locusts and fire — and both times his prayer held them back. Now the vision changes. This time he sees no disaster to plead away, but a measuring tool in the Lord's hand.
This vision is the last step in a sequence. One commentator sets out the three stages.
In Amos 7 three judgments on Israel rise step by step. First (verses 1-3) come the grasshoppers or creeping locusts, then (verses 4-6) fire, and last (verses 7-9) a plumbline, which pointed to the strict measure applied to mark their sins. When patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been sharing in the evil. These troubles came about, it would seem, through Pul, Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, who finally swept the kingdom away.
A Bible dictionary explains both the tool and what it stands for.
A lump of lead, a stone, or some other weight attached to a string. This simple device tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It stands as a symbol of the exactness with which God brought judgement on Israel. Israel had been built up by God as a wall with a plumbline, and with a plumbline it would be destroyed. In Zechariah 4:10, though it was a day of small things when the temple was rebuilt, the plumbline was in the hands of Zerubbabel, and the Lord of hosts was supporting him.
Notice the detail in the verse itself: the wall was built with a plumb line. The same tool that raised it now tests it — and that same tool later sat in the hand of the man rebuilding the temple.
Some translations read that the Lord stood on the wall rather than beside it. So what does the test find?
He saw the Lord standing on a wall with the plumbline to see if the wall was straight. The test by God's Word and God's holy law shows that everything is crooked and must be condemned. So comes the announcement, "I shall pass by it no more."
Another writer draws out why Amos reached for this picture.
As the Holy Spirit directed Amos's thoughts, the picture of a plumb line came to his mind. He used this familiar tool to tell the people of Israel what God wanted them to know — that God would measure them by His standards, His Word, and no other.
The line can show a fault, but it cannot mend one. One writer learned this from a real wall.
Soon the wall appeared to me to be leaning, but I was not sure, so I got a plumb line. I found that the wall was more than a foot out of plumb. I called for the mason. He looked at the wall and said, "That wall is all right. It is quite straight." I did not say a word, but hung the plumb line on it. The plumb line showed how far from true the wall was. The mason's mouth was shut... But the plumb line could not make the wall straight; it could only show how bad it was. In the same way the law cannot make us righteous; it can only show how bad we are.
In the first two visions God held back when the prophet prayed. This one is different, and one commentator explains why.
God had waited patiently for a long time. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The intercession of the prophet — that is, of the Spirit of Christ which worked in the prophets — had held back the scourge. But now the Lord would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand, and nothing would turn Him aside. With the house of Jehu Israel would fall, and that is what happened. It may be that the earlier judgments point to the fall of Jeroboam's family and of Ahab's family. Israel was raised up again after each of those, but not after the house of Jehu fell.
- Patience — Prayer turned back the first two judgments. The plumbline comes only when God's patience reaches its end, and further delay would mean sharing in the evil.
- Line — A plumbline is a weight on a string, the picture of exactness. God built Israel up as a wall by that line, and by that line it would come down.
- Standard — God measures His people by His own Word and by no other rule.
- Verdict — Put the line against the wall, and the wall is crooked. The test shows the fault, but it cannot mend it — and neither can the law make us righteous.
- End — Once the measuring line is in His hand, nothing turns Him aside. The sentence fell through the Assyrian kings who swept the kingdom away.
And Jehovah said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. And the Lord said, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel I will not again pass by them any more.
Amos has already seen two judgments — locusts and fire — and twice his prayer held them back; now God shows him a builder's tool instead, and asks him to name it. The question "Amos, what do you see?" turns the prophet from pleader into witness, and the answer God gives after it closes the door on further delay.
The plumbline is the last of three visions. It comes at the point where more waiting would no longer be patience.
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1-3) the grasshoppers or creeping locusts, next (verses 4-6) fire, and last (verses 7-9) a plumbline. The plumbline showed the strict measure applied to mark their sins. When patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been sharing in the evil. History, it seems, carried out these troubles in Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who at last swept away the kingdom.
The image comes from ordinary building work.
A plumbline is a simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It is a symbol of the exactness with which God brought judgment on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumbline, and with a plumbline He would take it down. Amos 7:7-8: compare 2 Kings 21:13; Isaiah 28:17. In Zechariah 4:10 it was a day of small things when the temple was rebuilt. Even so, the plummet was in Zerubbabel's hand, and the Lord of hosts was supporting him.
A wall is never judged by another wall. Here the Lord Himself holds the line against Israel.
He saw the Lord standing upon a wall with the plumbline to see if the wall was straight. The test by God's Word and God's holy law shows that all is crooked and must be condemned. So comes the announcement: "I will never again pass by them." The high places of Isaac will be left desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste, and God will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. The judgment will completely sweep away the false worship and the monarchy in Israel.
The same standard is what makes the image usable for any reader, not only for Israel.
As the Holy Spirit directed Amos's thoughts, the picture of a plumb line came to his mind, and he used this familiar tool to tell the Israelite people what God wanted them to know — that God would measure them by His standards, His Word, and no other.
Once you know what the tool does, you also know what it cannot do. One writer found this out with a wall and a mason.
Soon the wall appeared to me to be leaning, but I was not sure, so I got a plumb line. I found that the wall was more than a foot out of plumb. I called for the mason. He looked at the wall and said, "That wall is all right. It is quite straight." I did not say a word, but hung the plumb line on it. The plumb line showed how far from true the wall was. The mason's mouth was shut; he could not say a word. The plumb line laid bare his pride and self-confidence... But the plumb line could not make the wall straight; it could only show how bad it was. So the law cannot make us righteous, but only show how bad we are.
Twice the prophet had stood in the way of judgment. With the plumbline, that ministry ends.
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The prophet's intercession had held back the scourge. That intercession was the work of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, and it owed its power to His sufferings (see Psalm 18). But now the Lord would rise to judgment, with the measuring line in His hand. Nothing would turn Him aside.
The sentence took effect on a king named Zechariah, the last link in his royal line.
Zechariah, the last link in this chain, is in fact already rejected. He reigns only six months, and God turns away from him and his successors, according to His word: "I will never again pass by them" (Amos 7:8; Amos 8:2).
- Patience — prayer stopped the locusts and the fire. The plumbline comes only when waiting longer would mean sharing in the evil.
- Measure — the tool is exact. God built Israel up as a wall with a plumbline, and with a plumbline He takes it down.
- Standard — God measures His people by His Word and no other, and His Word found nothing in the wall straight.
- Exposure — a plumbline shows the lean, it never corrects it; the law can convict us, but it cannot make us righteous.
- Verdict — "I will never again pass by them" was no empty threat. It fell on the sanctuaries, the high places, and the house of Jeroboam, and ended with the kingdom swept away.
And the high places of Isaac shall be desolated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will arise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
God has just shown Amos a plumbline held against a wall. This verse is the verdict that follows: Israel's places of worship and her ruling family will both come down. It asks when God's patience with a people runs out, and what He strikes first when it does.
This verse ends the third of three warnings in the chapter. Each warning comes by a different instrument, and the last is a measuring tool:
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1-3) by the grasshoppers or creeping locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline, which showed the strict measure used to mark their sins. When patience had worn itself out, waiting longer would have meant taking the side of evil. These troubles seem to have come true in history under Pul, Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, who finally swept the kingdom away.
The tool itself carries the point. The line that built the wall is the line that condemns it:
A simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It pictures the exactness with which God brought judgment on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumbline, and with a plumbline it would be pulled down.
The verse names two targets: the shrines and the royal house. Both fall by the same test:
He saw the Lord standing on a wall with the plumbline to see if the wall was straight. The test by God's Word and God's holy law shows that everything is crooked and must be condemned. So comes the announcement: "I shall pass by it no more." The false worship and the monarchy in Israel will be completely swept away by the judgment.
The shrines fall first, and that fits the whole book. One writer traces every other sin in Israel back to her corrupt worship:
"Hear this word" begins Amos 3, Amos 4 and Amos 5. All of them are warnings to His guilty people, whose false worship was the mother sin behind all their other sins. Amos 6 is a woe on the security they felt in themselves and on their luxury, like nations that do not know God. The Lord Jehovah had turned back destroying judgments at the prophet's prayer. Now He would take the measuring-line in hand and lay waste the people and the king (Amos 7).
Twice in this chapter Amos pleads, and God holds the blow back. At the plumbline, nothing turns Him aside:
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The prayer of the prophet — that is, of the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets — had held back the punishment. But now Jehovah would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand, and nothing would turn Him aside. With the house of Jehu, Israel would fall. That is in fact what happened. Israel had been raised up again after earlier falls, but not after the house of Jehu had fallen.
The sentence on the royal house landed on the last king of the line, and it landed where God had already said it would:
Zechariah, Jeroboam's son, was the fourth generation granted to the house of Jehu by the Lord (2 Kings 10:30). But Zechariah, the last link of this chain, is in fact already rejected. He reigns only six months. God then turns away from him and his successors, just as He had said: "I will not again pass by them any more" (Amos 7:8; Amos 8:2). Hosea says the same: "They have set up kings, but not by me" (Hosea 8:4).
The verse threatens the sanctuaries, and Bethel's own priest had a name for his shrine: the king's sanctuary. That one phrase gave the game away:
It is remarkable how his language betrays him. Religion in Israel was a political arrangement, despite their effort to copy God's ritual. So here Amaziah speaks of the king's sanctuary as naturally as of the king's court. In the same way, people name their religious groups after their country, after an invented system, or after a favourite doctrine. No one thinks of a divine source and authority, except as decoration for the structure — not as something the heart must submit to and obey.
- Measured. God built Israel as a wall with a plumbline, and He measures her by the same line. This judgment is not temper. It is exact measurement against His Word.
- Root. The shrines fall before the throne, because false worship was the mother sin behind every other sin in the book.
- Limit. Prayer held back locusts and fire. At the plumbline, patience had run out, and waiting longer would have meant taking the side of evil.
- Fulfilled. The sword reached Jeroboam's house in his son Zechariah. His six-month reign closed the line of Jehu, and Israel was never raised up again.
- Exposed. A religion run by the state has no room for God's authority. Bethel's priest spoke of "the king's sanctuary" as easily as of the king's court.
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.
Amos has just seen a plumbline set against Israel, and has announced judgment on the house of Jeroboam. The reply comes not from the king but from the priest at Bethel. Amaziah sends word to the palace that the prophet is a conspirator, and that the country cannot survive what he is saying.
The accusation follows three warnings already given in this chapter.
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1-3) by the locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline. The plumbline showed the strict measure applied to mark their sins. When patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been sharing in the evil.
Amos had said the sword would come against the house of Jeroboam. Amaziah reports something different to the palace.
Amaziah, priest of the calf idol at Bethel, warns the king that Amos is prophesying against Israel. He adds that Amos had foretold the violent death of the king, and this was a lie. By this slander Amaziah was trying to rid himself of the prophet and have him sent away to Judah. He wanted this because the prophet was competing with him at Bethel.
Amaziah speaks one way to the king and another way to Amos.
The priest Amaziah tries to stir up the fears and jealousy of the king against Amos (verses 10, 11). At the same time he pretends to advise Amos for his own good. His aim was to get rid of the divine testimony, which he dreaded.
Amaziah tells the king the land cannot bear what Amos says. One writer traces that to the kind of religion Bethel had become.
A prophecy like this was out of place in the king's chapel. A religion arranged by the policy of man, without the fear of God, cannot endure the testimony of truth. Bethel was the house of the kingdom. The priest reports it all to the king. Let the prophet go away to Judah. There God still acknowledged Judah, and the truth could be preached; but Bethel was not the place for such unwelcome truths. The king was the ruler in all religious matters: man was master. But the LORD does not give up His own rights.
The same kind of charge appears again later in Scripture.
Amaziah, the apostate priest at Bethel, who had charge of the idol worship, accused the prophet falsely before King Jeroboam. It was a religious political accusation. The enemy accused Jeremiah in the same way (Jeremiah 37:14-15); he did the same with our Lord and His apostles.
Another writer sees the same treatment given to Elijah.
Elijah had to bear the charge of troubling Israel: "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" The more faithful someone is to God and His truth, the more open he is to this charge. If everything sleeps on in dead stillness, the god of this world will be well pleased and his territory undisturbed. But let one faithful person appear, and people are sure to treat him as a troubler and an intruder on peace and good order.
The king never answers the charge. One writer puts that down to what Jeroboam knew about the man who made it.
Men looked on Amos as a troubler of the peace of the kingdom. Amaziah the priest of Bethel told him to flee away to the land of Judah, "and eat bread there, and prophesy there," as if God's prophet were nothing more than a hired man like himself. He also accused the prophet before the king of having conspired against his life. Jeroboam seems to have paid little or no attention to this charge. He was perhaps too sensible a man to believe it, knowing the jealous, self-seeking spirit of the chief priest of the nation.
- Plumbline — Three judgments run through the chapter, ending with a plumbline set against Israel. God's patience had run out, and waiting longer would have meant sharing in the evil.
- Panic — Amaziah dreaded the prophet's testimony and wanted it gone. His report to the king and his friendly advice to Amos both serve that one aim.
- Perversion — A warning against the house of Jeroboam becomes a plot against the king's life. Writers call it a lie and a slander, told by a man defending his own position.
- Pattern — A religion arranged by human policy cannot bear the testimony of truth. The same religious-political charge later falls on Jeremiah, on the Lord, and on His apostles.
- Price — Faithfulness earns a man the name "troubler." The king here ignores the charge, and God does not give up His own rights.