Chapter 9
The Vision of the Destroyed Sanctuary. 1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
Strike the tops of the pillars until the thresholds shake,
and bring them down on the heads of all the people.
Should any survive,
I will slay them with the sword.
Not one will be able to flee;
not one will escape.
2 Even should they dig down to the netherworld,
from there my hand will take them.
Even though they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down.
3 Should they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel,
there I will track them down and take them.
Should they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
I will command the serpent there to bite them.
4 If they are led by their enemies into captivity,
there I shall command the sword to slay them.
I will fix my eyes on them
for evil, and not for good.
Psalm of Praise
5 The Lord, the God of hosts,
touches the earth and it melts
so that all who live on it mourn,
while the entire earth rises up like the Nile[a]
and then subsides like the River of Egypt.
6 He builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and establishes his vault of the sky over the earth—
the Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says:
Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Behold, I, the Lord God,
have my eyes upon this sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
The Time of Renewal
I Will Raise Up the Hut of David
However, I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.
9 For I will give the command
and shake out the house of Israel
from among all the nations,
as one sifts with a sieve
without one pebble falling to the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people shall die by the sword,
those who say, “Evil will not approach or overtake us.”
11 On that day I shall raise up
the fallen hut of David.
I will repair the gaps in its walls,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12 so that Israel may possess the remnant of Edom
and of all the nations that bear my name;
I, the Lord, will accomplish this.
I Will Reestablish My People Israel
13 The days are surely coming,
says the Lord,
when the plowman shall overtake
the one who reaps,
and the treader of grapes will overtake
the one who sows the seed.
New wine will drip from the mountains,
and every hill will flow with it.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them in their own soil,
and they shall never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
This is the word of the Lord, your God.
Footnotes
- Amos 9:5 The Nile was famous for its periodic flooding.