Jehovah repented for this. "It also shall not come to pass," saith the Lord Jehovah.
This he showed me, and behold the Lord has taken his station upon a city wall, a wall built with a plumbline.
And Jehovah said to me, "What art thou seeing?" And I said, "A plumbline." And the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass them over. The high places of Israel shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Isaac laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
II
AMOS DEFIES THE PRIEST
("As Savonarola at the Duomo in Florence, as Luther at the Diet of Worms, as our Lord Himself at the feast in Jerusalem, so was Amos at the feast in Bethel."--Smith.)
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 hold his words." For thus hath Amos said, "By the sword shall Jeroboam die, and Israel going shall go into captivity from off his own land."
And Amaziah Said unto Amos, "Visionary, be gone! Get thee off to the land of Judah; and eat thy bread there, and there play the prophet. But at Bethel thou shalt not [{356}] again prophesy. The king's sanctuary it is, and the house of the kingdom."
But Amos answered and said unto Amaziah, "No prophet I, nor prophet's son. But a herdsman I, and a dresser of sycamores; and Jehovah took me from behind the flock and Jehovah said unto me, 'Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.'
"Now therefore hearken to the word of Jehovah, thou that sayest, prophesy not against Israel, nor let drop thy words against the house of Israel; therefore thus saith Jehovah. Thy wife in the city shall become an outcast; and thy sons and thy daughters by the sword--shall fall; and thy land--by the measuring rope shall be divided; and thou in an unclean land shalt die. And Israel shall be driven from his land into captivity."
III
THE DOOM OF A CORRUPT CIVILIZATION