9
The Destruction of Israel
1I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said:
“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,
And ⚓break them on the heads of them all.
I will slay the last of them with the sword.
⚓He who flees from them shall not get away,
And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
2“Though⚓ they dig into hell,
From there My hand shall take them;
⚓Though they climb up to heaven,
From there I will bring them down;
3And though they ⚓hide themselves on top of Carmel,
From there I will search and take them;
Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,
From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
4Though they go into captivity before their enemies,
From there ⚓I will command the sword,
And it shall slay them.
⚓I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
5The Lord God of hosts,
He who touches the earth and it ⚓melts,
⚓And all who dwell there mourn;
All of it shall swell like the River,
And subside like the River of Egypt.
6He who builds His ⚓layers in the sky,
And has founded His strata in the earth;
Who ⚓calls for the waters of the sea,
And pours them out on the face of the earth—
⚓The Lordis His name.
7“Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me,
O children of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
The ⚓Philistines from ⚓Caphtor,
And the Syrians from ⚓Kir?
8“Behold, ⚓the eyes of the Lord Godare on the sinful kingdom,
And I ⚓will destroy it from the face of the earth;
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
Says the Lord.
9“For surely I will command,
And will sift the house of Israel among all nations,
As grain is sifted in a sieve;
⚓Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.
10All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,
⚓Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
Israel Will Be Restored
11“On⚓ that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will 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 Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.
13“Behold, ⚓the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
⚓The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
14⚓I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
⚓They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15I will plant them in their land,
⚓And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.