The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[a] the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake
and shatter them on the heads of all the people,[b]
and those who are left I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.(A)
2 Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.(B)
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.(C)
4 And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes on them
for harm and not for good.(D)
5 The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt,(E)
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.(F)
7 Are you not like the Cushites to me,
O people of Israel? says the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?(G)
8 The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth
—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.(H)
9 For I will command
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
as one shakes with a sieve
but no pebble shall fall to the ground.(I)
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, “Evil shall not overtake or meet us.”(J)
The Restoration of David’s Kingdom
11 On that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its[c] breaches
and raise up its[d] ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,(K)
12 in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,
says the Lord who does this.(L)
13 The time is surely coming, says the Lord,
when the one who plows shall catch up with the one who reaps
and the treader of grapes with the one who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.(M)
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.(N)
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked up
out of the land that I have given them,
says the Lord your God.(O)
Footnotes
Cross references
- 9.1 : v 4; Am 2.14; 3.14; Hab 3.13; Zeph 2.14
- 9.2 : Ps 139.8; Jer 51.53; Ob 4
- 9.3 : Isa 27.1; Jer 16.16, 17; Am 1.2
- 9.4 : Lev 26.33; Jer 44.11; Ezek 5.12
- 9.5 : Am 8.8; Mic 1.4
- 9.6 : Ps 104.3; Am 4.13; 5.8
- 9.7 : Isa 43.3; Jer 47.4; Am 1.5; 2.10; 3.1
- 9.8 : vv 4, 10; Jer 30.11; 44.27; Joel 2.32
- 9.9 : Isa 30.28
- 9.10 : Am 6.3; 8.14
- 9.11 : Ps 80.12; Isa 63.11; Jer 46.26; Acts 15.16, 17
- 9.12 : Isa 11.14; 43.7; Ob 19
- 9.13 : Lev 26.5; Joel 3.18
- 9.14 : Isa 60.4; 61.4; Jer 30.18; Ezek 28.26; 36.35
- 9.15 : Isa 60.21; Jer 24.6; 31.28; 32.41; Ezek 34.28