< Amos 9 >

1 I have seen the Lord standing by the altar, and He says, “Strike the knob, and the thresholds shake, And cut them off by the head—all of them, And I slay their posterity with a sword, None that flee of them flee away, Nor a fugitive of them escape.
I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe.
2 If they dig through into Sheol, From there My hand takes them, And if they go up [to] the heavens, From there I cause them to come down. (Sheol h7585)
Even if they go deep into the underworld, my hand will take them up from there; if they go up to heaven, I will get them down: (Sheol h7585)
3 And if they are hid in the top of Carmel, From there I search out, and have taken them, And if they are hid from My eyes in the bottom of the sea, From there I command the serpent, And it has bitten them.
Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in search of them and get them out; though they keep themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite:
4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I command the sword, And it has slain them, And I have set My eye on them for evil, And not for good.”
And though they are taken away as prisoners by their attackers, even there will I give orders to the sword to put them to death: my eyes will be fixed on them for evil and not for good.
5 And [it is] the Lord, YHWH of Hosts, Who is striking against the land, and it melts, And mourned have all the inhabitants in it, And all of it has come up as a flood, And it has sunk—like the flood of Egypt.
For the Lord, the God of armies, is he at whose touch the land is turned to water, and everyone in it will be given up to sorrow; all of it will be overflowing like the River, and will go down again like the River of Egypt;
6 Who is building His upper chambers in the heavens; As for His troop, On earth He has founded it, Who is calling for the waters of the sea, And pours them out on the face of the land, YHWH [is] His Name.
It is he who makes his rooms in the heaven, basing his arch on the earth; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, and sends them flowing over the face of the earth; the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not as sons of Cushim to Me, O sons of Israel?” A declaration of YHWH. “Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?
Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? says the Lord. Have I not taken Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir?
8 Behold, [the] eyes of Lord YHWH [are] on the sinful kingdom, And I have destroyed it from off the face of the ground, Only, I do not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” A declaration of YHWH.
See, the eyes of the Lord are on the evil kingdom, and I will put an end to it in all the earth; but I will not send complete destruction on Jacob, says the Lord.
9 “For behold, I am commanding, And I have shaken among all the nations the house of Israel, As [one] shakes with a sieve, And there does not fall a grain [to] the earth.
For see, I will give orders, and I will have Israel moved about among all the nations, as grain is moved about by the shaking of the tray, but not the smallest seed will be dropped on the earth.
10 By sword all sinners of My people die, Who are saying, Evil does not overtake, or go before, For our sakes.
All those sinners among my people will be put to the sword who say, Evil will not overtake us or come face to face with us.
11 In that day I raise the dwelling place of David that is fallen, And I have repaired their breaches, And I raise up its ruins, And I have built it up as in days of old,
In that day I will put up the tent of David which has come down, and make good its broken places; and I will put up again his damaged walls, building it up as in the past;
12 So that they possess the remnant of Edom, And all the nations on whom My Name is called,” A declaration of YHWH—the doer of this.
So that the rest of Edom may be their heritage, and all the nations who have been named by my name, says the Lord, who is doing this.
13 “Behold, days are coming,” A declaration of YHWH, “And the plowman has come near to the reaper, And the treader of grapes to the scatterer of seed, And the mountains have dropped juice, And all the hills melt.
See, the days will come, says the Lord, when the ploughman will overtake him who is cutting the grain, and the crusher of the grapes him who is planting seed; and sweet wine will be dropping from the mountains, and the hills will be turned into streams of wine.
14 And I have turned back [to] the captivity of My people Israel, And they have built desolate cities, and inhabited, And have planted vineyards, and drunk their wine, And made gardens, and eaten their fruit.
And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed, and they will be building up again the waste towns and living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens and get the fruit of them.
15 And I have planted them on their own ground, And they are not plucked up anymore from off their own ground, That I have given to them,” said your God YHWH!
And I will have them planted in their land, and never again will they be uprooted from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.

< Amos 9 >