The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[a] the altar, and he said:
“Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;[b]
and what are left of them I will slay with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.
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.
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.
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them;
and I will set my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”
5 The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
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.
7 “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground;
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
says the Lord.
9 “For lo, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’
The Restoration of David’s Kingdom
11 “In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
says the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
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.
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked up
out of the land which I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.