---
title: "Commentary on Joel, Amos and Obadiah"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 72 of 79
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-joel-amos-and-obadiah/72/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Joel, Amos and Obadiah, section 72. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-joel-amos-and-obadiah/72/"
---

# Commentary on Joel, Amos and Obadiah

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on three of the shorter prophets: Joel, Amos and Obadiah.

## 72. Chapter 7

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-joel-amos-and-obadiah/72/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-joel-amos-and-obadiah/72/#p-N

[¶0] 1 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah showed me,— Even lo, he formed locusts when grass began to grow, And, lo, it was the grass after the cuttings of the king:

[¶1] 2 And it was, after they had finished to eat, That I then said, “Lord Jehovah, spare, I pray; Who will restore Israel, for he is small?”

[¶2] 3 Jehovah repented of this; “It shall not be,” said Jehovah.

[¶3] 4 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah showed me,— Even lo, the Lord Jehovah called to contend by fire; And it devoured the great deep and their portion:

[¶4] 5 And I said, “Lord Jehovah, cease, I pray; Who will restore Israel, for he is small?

[¶5] 6 Jehovah repented of this; “This also shall not be,” said the Lord Jehovah.

[¶6] 7 Thus hath he showed me,— Even lo, the Lord stood on a plumbline wall, And in his hand a plumbline,

[¶7] 8 And Jehovah said to me, “What seest thou, Amos?” And I said, “A plumbline:” Then said the Lord, “Behold, I shall set A plumbline in the midst of my people Israel; I will no longer pass by them:

[¶8] 9 And destroyed shall be the high places of Isaac, And overthrown shall be the sanctuaries of Israel, And I shall rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

[¶9] 10 Then sent Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, To Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying,— “Conspired against thee has Amos In the midst of the house of Israel; The land cannot bear all his words:

[¶10] 11 For thus saith Amos,— ‘By the sword shall Jeroboam die, And Israel, by migrating, shall migrate from their own land.’”

[¶11] 12 Amaziah said also to Amos,— “Seer, go, flee into the land of Judah, And there eat bread, and there prophesy:

[¶12] 13 But in Bethel, prophesy no more; For it is the king’s sanctuary, and the house of the kingdom.”

[¶13] 14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah,— “No Prophet was I, nor was I a Prophet’s son, For a shepherd I was, and a gatherer of sycamores:

[¶14] 15 But Jehovah took me from after the sheep, And Jehovah said to me,— ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

[¶15] 16 And now hear the word of Jehovah, thou who sayest,— ‘Prophesy not concerning Israel, And speak not concerning the house of Isaac:’

[¶16] 17 Therefore thus saith Jehovah,— Thy wife in the city shall be prostituted, And thy sons and thy daughters shall by the sword fall, And thy land shall by a line be divided, And thou in a polluted land shalt die, And Israel, by migrating, shall migrate from their own land.”