1 I saw Jehovah standing beside the altar. He said: »Strike the capitals that the thresholds may shake! Break them in pieces on the head of all of them and I will slay the last of them with the sword. Not one of them will get away. Not one of them will escape!

2 »Though they dig into the grave my hand will take them. Though they climb to heaven I will bring them down.

3 »Though they hide on top of Mount Carmel I will search and find them and take them from there. Though they hide from my sight on the bottom of the sea I will command the serpent to bite them.

4 »Though they go into the captivity of their enemies I will command the sword, and it will slay them. I will set my eyes against them for evil, and not for good.

5 »For the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, is he who touches the land and it melts. All who live there will mourn. It will rise up like the River Nile, and will subside again, like the River of Egypt.

6 »He builds his chambers in the heavens. He founded his dome over the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth. Jehovah is his name.

7 »Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel?« Said Jehovah. »Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

8 »Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom! Yet, I will destroy it from off the face of the earth! I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,« said Jehovah.

9 I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations! Like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel will not fall on the earth.

10 »All the sinners of my people will die by the sword. They say: The evil will not overtake nor meet us.

11 »In that day I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David and close up the breaches. I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.

12 »They may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name,« said Jehovah.

13 »Behold, the days are coming,« said Jehovah, »that the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes by the one who sows seed. The mountains will drop sweet wine, and all the hills will melt.

14 »I will bring my people Israel back from captivity. They will rebuild the cities and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, and drink the wine. They will also make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 »I will plant them upon their own land and they will no more be plucked up out of their land that I have given them.« Jehovah your God has spoken.