Amos 9:1-10

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.
²If 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.
³If 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.
⁴If 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

⁵The 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.
⁶He 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

⁷This 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]”

⁸The 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.
⁹I 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.”

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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.