5. Then said I, O Adonoi Hashem, cease, I beseech thee; how shall Ya'akov survive? For he is katon.
6. Hashem relented for this: This also shall not be, saith Adonoi Hashem.
7. Thus He showed me; and, hinei, Hashem stood upon a chomah (wall) made with a plumb line, and a plumb line in His hand.
8. And Hashem said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line. Then said Hashem, Hineni, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My people Yisroel; I will not again pass by them [and spare them] anymore;
9. And the high places of Yitzchak shall be desolate, and the mikdeshei Yisroel (i.e., heathen sanctuaries) shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the Bais Yarov`am with the cherev.
10. Then Amatzyah the kohen of Beit-El sent to Yarov`am Melech Yisroel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of Bais Yisroel; the land is not able to bear all his words.
11. For thus Amos saith, Yarov`am shall die by the cherev, and Yisroel shall surely be led away into the golus out of their own land.
12. Also Amatzyah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into Eretz Yehudah, and there eat lechem, and prophesy there:
13. But prophesy not again any more at Beit-El; for it is the Mikdash Melech, and it is the Bais Mamlachah.
14. Then answered Amos, and said to Amatzyah, I was no navi, neither was I a ben navi; but I was a herder, and a dresser of sycamore-fig trees;
15. And Hashem took me as I followed the tzon, and Hashem said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Yisroel.