The Destruction of Israel

9 I saw the Lord standing beside1 the altar, and he said:

e“Strike the capitals until ethe thresholds fshake,

gand shatter them on the heads of all the people;2

and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;

hnot one of them shall flee away;

not one of them shall escape.

2  i“If they dig into Sheol,

from there shall my hand take them;

iif they climb up to heaven,

from there I will bring them down.

3  If they hide themselves on jthe top of Carmel,

from there I will search them out and take them;

kand if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,

there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.

4  lAnd if they go into captivity before their enemies,

there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;

mand I will fix my eyes upon them

for evil and not for good.”

5  The Lord God of hosts,

he who touches the earth and nit melts,

and all who dwell in it mourn,

oand all of it rises like the Nile,

oand sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;

6  pwho builds his upper chambers in the heavens

and founds his vault upon the earth;

qwho calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—

rthe Lord is his name.