Amos 9

The Destruction of Israel

9I 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.

²ⁱ“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.

³If 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.

^4lAnd 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.”

⁵The 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;

^6pwho 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.

⁷“Are you not like ^sthe Cushites to me,

O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.

^t“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,

and ^uthe Philistines from ^vCaphtor and the Syrians from ^wKir?

⁸Behold, ^xthe eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,

and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,

^yexcept that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”

declares the Lord.

⁹“For behold, I will command,

^zand shake the house of Israel among all the nations

as one shakes with a sieve,

but no pebble shall fall to the earth.

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

who say, ^a‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

The Restoration of Israel

¹¹“In that day ^bI 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,

^12cthat they may possess the remnant of Edom

and ^dall the nations who are called by my name,”³

declares the Lord who does this.

¹³“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,

^e“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

^fthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.

^14gI will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and ^hthey shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

ⁱthey shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

^15jI will plant them on their land,

^kand they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land ^lthat I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.