Amos 7:14-8:3

14Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

16Now then, hear the word of the LORD . You say, “ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’ 17“Therefore this is what the LORD says: “ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan Hebrew an unclean country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’ ”

A Basket of Ripe Fruit 1This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.

2“What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the LORD said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

3“In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Or “the temple singers will wail Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”