Terraced hills at the grape harvest at dawn: low vines heavy with dark clusters, a rock-cut winepress brimming with grapes, mist in the valley below a calm sky.

Five visions

Amos 9

Judgment is not God’s last word. Here is what comes after.

15 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–2The nations judgedEight oracles, closing on Israel
3–5:17Hear this wordThree messages to Samaria
5:18–6Woe to those at easeThe Day of the LORD, and Zion’s comfort
7–9:10Five visionsLocusts, fire, plumb line, fruit, the altarChapter 9
9:11–15The fallen tent raisedRuins rebuilt, vineyards planted

The Destruction of Israel

God

Bethel’s high place at gray dawn: a big stone altar on its platform of squared stones, the tall plain stone gate pillars beside it cracked, dust falling from the lintel, no one there.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said:

“Strike the tops of the pillars

so that the thresholds shake.

Topple them on the heads of all the people,

and I will kill the rest with the sword.

None of those who flee will get away;

none of the fugitives will escape.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

God

Though they hide themselves atop Carmel,

there I will track them and seize them;

and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea,

there I will command the serpent to bite them.

Though they are driven by their enemies into captivity,

there I will command the sword to slay them.

I will fix My eyes upon them

for harm and not for good.”

Five visions

Whiteboard

Twice Amos prayed and the LORD held back. Then the visions stopped asking, until the promise.

Amos

Storm rain sweeps in from the sea over the coastal plain in great gray curtains under a vast sky.

The Lord GOD of Hosts,

He who touches the earth and it melts,

and all its dwellers mourn—

all the land rises like the Nile,

then sinks like the river of Egypt—

He builds His upper rooms in the heavens

and founds His vault upon the earth.

He summons the waters of the sea

and pours them over the face of the earth.

The LORD is His name.

Reflect

No place to hide

The God who can find anyone found Israel to judge. What changes when the same God finds you to save? Write down where you have been hiding from Him, and what it would mean to be found.

God

“Are you not like the Cushites to Me,

O children of Israel?”

declares the LORD.

“Did I not bring Israel

up from the land of Egypt,

the Philistines from Caphtor,

and the Arameans from Kir?

God

Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD

are on the sinful kingdom,

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”

declares the LORD.

God

On a rock threshing floor, a farmer shakes a round wooden-framed sieve of cords over a heap; grain falls through, and a few small stones stay caught in the mesh.

“For surely I will give the command,

and I will shake the house of Israel

among all the nations

as grain is sifted in a sieve;

but not a pebble will reach the ground.

God

All the sinners among My people

will die by the sword—

all those who say,

‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

Question

Quick question

“Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,” the LORD asks, and then names two other peoples.

In 9:7, which peoples does the LORD say He also brought up?

A Promise of Restoration

God

“In that day I will restore

the fallen tent of David.

I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins,

and rebuild it as in the days of old,

that they may possess the remnant of Edom

and all the nations that bear My name,”

declares the LORD, who will do this.

Amos 9:11–12

God

God

“Behold, the days are coming,”

declares the LORD,

“when the plowman will overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed.

The mountains will drip with sweet wine,

with which all the hills will flow.

God

A small hill town rising again among old ruins: new flat roofs among broken walls, young vines and garden rows on the terraces below, smoke from a cooking fire in the morning air.

I will restore My people Israel from captivity;

they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities.

They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;

they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God

I will firmly plant them in their own land,

never again to be uprooted

from the land that I have given them,”

says the LORD your God.

You’ve experienced

Amos 9

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A verse to carry with you

“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the LORD, who will do this.

Amos 9:11–12

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