[1] I saw my Master standing by the altar. He said, “Hit the top of the columns, and the building will shake all the way down to the thresholds. Make the columns fall on the peoples’ heads. If any people are left alive, then I will kill them with a sword. A person might run away, but he will not escape. Not one of the people will escape.
[2] If they dig deep into the ground, I will pull them from there. If they go up into the skies, I will bring them down from there.
[3] If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will find them there, and I will 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.”
[5] My Master, the Lord All-Powerful, will touch the land, and the land will melt. Then all the people that live in the land will cry for the dead people. The land will rise and fall like the Nile River in Egypt.
[6] The Lord built his upper rooms above the skies. He put his skies over the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out ˻as rain˼ on the land. Yahweh is his name.
[7] The Lord says this: “Israel, you are like the Ethiopians to me. I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt. I brought the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramean people from Kir.”
[8] The Lord my Master is watching the sinful kingdom ˻(Israel)˼. The Lord said, “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 destroy the nation Israel˼. I will scatter the people of Israel among all nations. But it will be like a person ˻sifting flour˼. A person shakes flour through a sifter. ˻The good flour falls through,˼ but the bad lumps are caught. ˻It will be that way with Jacob’s family.˼
[10] Sinners among my people say, 'Nothing bad will happen to us!’ But all those people will be killed with swords!”
[11] “David’s tent has fallen, but at that time, I will set his tent up again. I will fix the holes in the walls. I will build the ruined buildings again. I will build it like it was before.
[12] Then the people left alive in Edom, and all the people called by my name, will look to the Lord ˻for help˼.” The Lord said those things, and he will make them happen.
[13] The Lord says, “The time is coming when the person plowing the field, will catch up with the person harvesting the crops. The person that walks on the grapes, will catch up with the person that pulls the grapes from the plants. The sweet wine will pour from the hills and mountains.
[14] I will bring my people, Israel, back from captivity. They will build the ruined cities again. And they will live in those cities. They will plant fields of grapes, 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 they will never again be pulled up out of the land that I have given them.” The Lord your God said these things.