8 On account of this, will not the land tremble and will not every living thing in it mourn? And all of it will rise like the Nile and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt. 9 And then in that day,” ⌊declares⌋c my Lord Yahweh, “Id will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the land on a day of light. 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day. 11 Look, the days are coming,” ⌊declares⌋e my Lord Yahweh, “when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread and not a thirst for water, but ⌊of hearing⌋f the words of Yahweh! 12 And they will wander from sea to sea and from the north and to the east. They will roam about to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it! 13 In that day the beautiful young women and the young men will faint because of thirst. 14 These are those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘By the life of your gods, O Dan,’ and ‘By the life of the way of Beersheba,’ they will fall and they will not rise again.”

Destruction of Israel

9 I saw my Lord standing by the altar and he said, “Strike the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, and shatter them on the head of all of them, and I will kill the rest of them with the sword. A fugitive belonging to them will not run away, and a survivor belonging to them will not escape. 2 If they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will take them, and even if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. 3 And even if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search and will take them, and even if they hide from before my eyes at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the sea serpent and it will bite them. 4 And even if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword and it will kill them, and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.” 5 And thus will do the Lord Yahweh of hosts, who touches the earth and it melts, and all of those living in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile and it sinks down like the Nile of Egypt, 6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and lays the foundation of his vault on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them on the surface of the earth—Yahweh is his name. 7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” ⌊declares⌋a Yahweh. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and ⌊the Arameans⌋b from Kir? 8 Look, the eyes of my Lord Yahweh are on the kingdom of sin, and I will destroy it from the surface of the earth. However, I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” ⌊declares⌋c Yahweh. 9 “Yes, look, I am going to command and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations like one who shakes with a sieve, but not a pebble will fall to the ground. 10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil will not overtake or confront us.’