Amos 9
English Standard Version
The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[a] the altar, and he said:
(A)“Strike the capitals until (B)the thresholds (C)shake,
(D)and shatter them on the heads of all the people;[b]
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
(E)not one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
2 (F)“If they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
(G)if they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on (H)the top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
(I)and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 (J)And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
(K)and 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 (L)it melts,
and all who dwell in it mourn,
(M)and all of it rises like the Nile,
(N)and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 (O)who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth;
(P)who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
(Q)the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like (R)the Cushites to me,
O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
(S)“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and (T)the Philistines from (U)Caphtor and the Syrians from (V)Kir?
8 Behold, (W)the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
(X)except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command,
(Y)and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, (Z)‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
The Restoration of Israel
11 “In that day (AA)I 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,
12 (AB)that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and (AC)all the nations who are called by my name,”[c]
declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
(AD)“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
(AE)the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 (AF)I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and (AG)they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
(AH)they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 (AI)I will plant them on their land,
(AJ)and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land (AK)that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Amos 9
Easy-to-Read Version
Vision of the Lord Standing by the Altar
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said,
“Hit the top of the columns,
and shake them to the ground.
Push them and they will fall
on everyone’s head.
As for those who survive,
I will kill them with a sword.
None of them will run away.
None of them will escape.
2 If they dig deep into the ground,[a]
I will pull them from there.
If they go up into the skies,[b]
I will bring them down from there.
3 If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,[c]
I will find them there and take them from that place.
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
I will command the snake, and it will bite them.
4 If they are captured and taken away by their enemies,
I will command the sword,
and it will kill them there.
Yes, I will watch over them,
but I will watch for ways to give them troubles,
not for ways to do good things.”
Punishment Will Destroy the People
5 The Lord God All-Powerful will touch the land,
and the land will melt.
Then all the people who live in the land will cry for the dead.
The land will rise and fall
like the Nile River in Egypt.
6 He built his upper rooms above the skies.
He put his skies[d] over the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out as rain on the land.
Yahweh is his name.
The Lord Promises Destruction for Israel
7 This is what the Lord says:
“Israel, you are like the Ethiopians to me.
I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,[e]
and the Arameans from Kir.[f]”
8 The Lord God is watching this sinful kingdom.
The Lord says,
“I will wipe Israel off the face of the earth,
but I will never completely destroy Jacob’s family.
9 I am giving the command
to scatter the people of Israel among all nations.
But it will be like someone sifting flour.
A person shakes flour through a sifter.[g]
The good flour falls through, but the bad lumps are caught.
10 “Sinners among my people say,
‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
But all of them will be killed with swords.”
God Promises to Restore the Kingdom
11 “David’s tent[h] has fallen,
but at that time I will set it up again.
I will fix its holes and repair its ruined parts.
I will set it up as it was before.
12 Then the people left alive in Edom,
and all the people called by my name, will look to me for help.”
This is what the Lord said,
and he will make it happen.
13 The Lord says, “A time of great blessing is coming.
Workers will still be harvesting
when it is time to plow the fields again.
They will still be trampling the grapes
when it is time for a new crop.
Sweet wine will drip from the mountains
and pour from the hills.
14 I will bring my people, Israel,
back from captivity.
They will rebuild the ruined cities,
and they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards
and drink the wine they produce.
They will plant gardens
and eat the crops they produce.
15 I will plant my people on their land,
and never again will they be pulled up out of the land that I gave them.”
This is what the Lord your God said.
Footnotes
- Amos 9:2 ground Literally, “Sheol, the place of the dead.”
- Amos 9:2 skies Or “heaven.”
- Amos 9:3 Mount Carmel A mountain in northern Israel. This name means “God’s vineyard.” This shows that it was a very fertile hill.
- Amos 9:6 skies Literally, “dome” or “vault.”
- Amos 9:7 Caphtor An island west of Israel, probably Crete or Cyprus.
- Amos 9:7 Kir Where the Arameans came from and where the Assyrians sent them in exile. There are several places with this name.
- Amos 9:9 sifter Something like a cup with a screen on its bottom. A sifter is used for removing large lumps from the good flour.
- Amos 9:11 David’s tent This probably means the city of Jerusalem or the country of Judah.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International