1   I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:

Strike the capitals so that the whole porch is shaken;
  I will smash them all into pieces ^note
  and I will kill them to the last man ^note with the sword.
  No fugitive shall escape,
  no survivor find safety;
     2   if they dig down to Sheol,

Visions foretelling doom upon Israel
  thence shall my hand take them;
    if they climb up to heaven,
    thence will I bring them down.
     3   If they hide on the top of Carmel,
  there will I search out and take them;
if they conceal themselves from me in the depths of the sea,
there will I bid the sea-serpent bite them.
4   If they are herded into captivity by their enemies,
  there will I bid the sword slay them,
  and I will fix my eye on them
    for evil and not for good.


     5   The Lord the God of Hosts,
  at whose touch the earth heaves,
    and all who dwell on it wither, ^note
  it surges like the Nile,
    and subsides like the river of Egypt,
   6   who builds his stair up to ^note the heavens
  and arches his ceiling over the earth,
    who summons the waters of the sea
  and pours them over the land—
    his name is the Lord.


7   Are not you Israelites like Cushites to me?
    says the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor, the Aramaeans from Kir?
   8   Behold, I, the Lord God,
  have my eyes on this sinful kingdom,
and I will wipe it off the face of the earth.
A remnant spared and restored

Yet I will not wipe out the family of Jacob root and branch,
    says the Lord.
   9   No; I will give my orders,
I will shake Israel to and fro through all the nations
  as a sieve is shaken to and fro
  and not one pebble falls to the ground.
10   They shall die by the sword, all the sinners of my people,
who say, ‘Thou wilt not let disaster come near us
    or overtake us.’

A remnant spared and restored
   11   On that day I will restore
    David's fallen house; ^note
I will repair its ^note gaping walls and restore its ^note ruins;
    I will rebuild it as it was long ago,
12   that they may possess what is left of Edom
and all the nations who were once named mine.

This is the very word of the Lord, who will do this.

   13   A time is coming, says the Lord,
  when the ploughman shall follow hard on the vintager, ^note
and he who treads the grapes after him who sows the seed.
  The mountains shall run with fresh wine,
  and every hill shall wave with corn.
   14   I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel;
they shall rebuild deserted cities and live in them,
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
make gardens and eat the fruit.
   15   Once more I will plant them on their own soil,
  and they shall never again be uprooted
    from the soil I have given them.
  It is the word of the Lord your God.

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