Summary
In the first part of the chapter, God shows Amos visions of grasshoppers, fire, and a plumbline, each symbolizing impending judgment upon Israel. Amos repeatedly declares that God will not spare Israel, even after the people beg for mercy. The prophet then warns that the high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries destroyed, and that the house of Jeroboam will be struck by the sword. Amaziah, a priest of Bethel, accuses Amos of conspiracy and orders him to leave Bethel and prophesy only in Judah. Amos responds that he is not a prophet by birth but was chosen by God to deliver the warning, and God confirms that Israel will be exiled and its people slain. The chapter ends with a dramatic pronouncement that Amos’s own family will suffer, and that Israel’s captivity is inevitable. This passage illustrates God’s use of prophetic imagery to convey judgment, the prophet’s resistance to political pressure, and the certainty of divine justice.