The Lord at the altar

1I saw the LORD standing beside9.1 Or upon the altar, and he said:

“Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake,

and shatter them on the heads of all the people;9.1 Heb all of them

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.

3Though 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.

4And 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.”

5The 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;

6who 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?

8Behold, 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.

10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,

who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’

119.11-12: Acts 15.16-17.“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;

12that they may possess the remnant of Edom

and all the nations who are called by my name,”

says the LORD who does this.

139.13: Joel 3.18.“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“when the ploughman 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.

14I 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.

15I 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.