Amos 9:1-10
Expanded Bible
Israel Will Be Destroyed
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
“·Smash [Strike] the top of the pillars
so that even the ·bottom of the doors [thresholds] will shake.
·Make the pillars fall [L Strike/Shatter them] on the people’s heads;
anyone left alive I will kill with a sword.
Not one person will get away;
no one will escape.
2 If they dig down ·as deep as the place of the dead [or into the depths of the earth; L into Sheol],
·I [L My hand] will pull them up from there.
If they climb up into heaven,
I will bring them down from there.
3 If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,
I will ·find them [hunt them down] and ·take them away [seize them].
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
I will command ·a snake [or the serpent; C perhaps the mythological beast symbolic of chaos] to bite them.
4 If they are ·captured and taken away [driven into exile] by their enemies,
I will command the sword to ·kill [slay] them.
I will ·keep watch over them [fix my eyes on them],
but ·I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good [L for evil/harm, not for good/prosperity].”
5 The Lord God ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; T of hosts] touches the land,
and the land ·shakes [dissolves; melts].
Then everyone who lives in the land ·cries for the dead [mourns].
The whole ·land [or earth] rises like the Nile River
and ·falls [sinks; subsides] like the river of Egypt [8:8].
6 The Lord builds his ·upper rooms [or steps] ·above the skies [in the heavens];
he sets their foundations on the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the ·land [L face of the earth/land; C as rain].
The Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says,
“Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush [C Ethiopia].
·I brought [L Did I not bring…?] Israel out of the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from ·Crete [L Caphtor],
and the Arameans [C Syrians] from Kir.
8 [L Look; T Behold] I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom [C Israel].
I will destroy it
from ·off [L the face of] the earth,
but I will not completely destroy
·Jacob’s descendants [L the house of Jacob],” says the Lord.
9 “[L For look/T behold] I am giving the command
to ·scatter [L shake] the nation of Israel among all nations.
It will be like someone shaking grain through a ·strainer [sieve],
but not even a ·tiny stone [pebble; or kernel of grain] falls ·through [L to the ground].
10 All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword—
those who say,
‘·Nothing bad will happen to us [L Disaster will not approach and meet us].’
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