Amos 9:1-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[a] the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake
and shatter them on the heads of all the people,[b]
and those who are left I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.(A)
2 Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.(B)
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.(C)
4 And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes on them
for harm and not for good.(D)
5 The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt,(E)
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.(F)
7 Are you not like the Cushites to me,
O people of Israel? says the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?(G)
8 The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth
—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.(H)
9 For I will command
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
as one shakes with a sieve
but no pebble shall fall to the ground.(I)
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, “Evil shall not overtake or meet us.”(J)
Amos 9:1-10
New Living Translation
A Vision of God at the Altar
9 Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said,
“Strike the tops of the Temple columns,
so that the foundation will shake.
Bring down the roof
on the heads of the people below.
I will kill with the sword those who survive.
No one will escape!
2 “Even if they dig down to the place of the dead,[a]
I will reach down and pull them up.
Even if they climb up into the heavens,
I will bring them down.
3 Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel,
I will search them out and capture them.
Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean,
I will send the sea serpent after them to bite them.
4 Even if their enemies drive them into exile,
I will command the sword to kill them there.
I am determined to bring disaster upon them
and not to help them.”
5 The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
touches the land and it melts,
and all its people mourn.
The ground rises like the Nile River at floodtime,
and then it sinks again.
6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens,
while its foundation is on the earth.
He draws up water from the oceans
and pours it down as rain on the land.
The Lord is his name!
7 “Are you Israelites more important to me
than the Ethiopians?[b]” asks the Lord.
“I brought Israel out of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Crete[c]
and led the Arameans out of Kir.
8 “I, the Sovereign Lord,
am watching this sinful nation of Israel.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,[d]”
says the Lord.
9 “For I will give the command
and will shake Israel along with the other nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
yet not one true kernel will be lost.
10 But all the sinners will die by the sword—
all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
