Amos 7:12
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
Amos 7:12 belongs to the closing warning to the northern kingdom during the long reign of Jeroboam II, when deserved judgments were held back for a season. It was a time when Israel enjoyed apparent prosperity and gained notable military victories. That prosperity produced no change in unrepentant hearts and shows how deeply impenitent Israel had become.
The speaker is Amaziah, a leader among the idolatrous priests at Bethel. He ordered Amos to flee to the land of Judah, to earn his living there as meant by eating bread, and to prophesy there and no more at Bethel. He treated Bethel as the king's sanctuary and royal court where such prophecy should not be given.
His aim was to drive Amos out and silence his message, rather than to heed the warning. That message was directed against the nation and its king. Amos had warned that Israel would surely be led away captive out of its own land, yet even that severe sentence left the hearers unmoved. Their rejection of plain warning brought the final decree of captivity.