Amos 9:1-10

Common English Bible

    9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and the Lord said:
    Strike the pillars until the foundations shake,
        shatter them on the heads of all the people.
    With the sword, I will kill the last of them;
        not one of them will flee,
        not one of them will escape.
²     If they dig through into the underworld,^[a]
        from there my hand will take them.
    If they climb up to the heavens,
        from there I will bring them down.
³     If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
        I will search for them there and remove them.
    If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
        I will give an order to the sea serpent, and it will bite them.
⁴     If they are forced from their homes before their enemies,
        there I will give an order to the sword, and it will kill them.
    I will fix my eyes on them
        for harm and not for good.

⁵     The Lord, God of heavenly forces,
        touches the earth and it melts,
        and all who live in it are sick to death.
    All of it^[b] rises up like the Nile
        and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt.
⁶     It is the Lord who builds his upper rooms in the heavens
        and establishes his residence upon the earth;
    who summons the waters of the sea,
        and pours them out upon the face of the earth—
            the Lord is his name.

⁷     Aren’t you like the Cushites to me,
        people of Israel?
says the Lord.
    Haven’t I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
        and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
⁸     Look, the Lord God is eyeing the sinful kingdom,
        and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
    However, I won’t destroy fully the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.

⁹     Look, I am giving orders,
        and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations
    as one sifts dirt with a screen,
        but no pebble will fall to the ground.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people will die by the sword,
        those who say,
    “Evil won’t overtake or meet us.”