"I also have withheld the rain from you, When there were yet three months to the harvest; And I caused it to rain on one city, And caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, And the piece where it didn't rain withered.
 In Amos 7:1-17 a gradation of three judgments on Israel is set forth: first (verses 1-3) by the grasshoppers or creeping locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and lastly (verses 7-9) by a plumbline, which intimated the strict measure applied to mark their iniquities; when patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been connivance in evil. These troubles were accomplished historically, it would seem, in Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who finally swept away the kingdom.
