Amos 9:1-10
Amos 9:1-10 NCV
I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Smash the top of the pillars so that even the bottom of the doors will shake. Make the pillars fall on the people’s heads; anyone left alive I will kill with a sword. Not one person will get away; no one will escape. If they dig down as deep as the place of the dead, I will pull them up from there. If they climb up into heaven, I will bring them down from there. If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will find them and take them away. If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command a snake to bite them. If they are captured and taken away by their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will keep watch over them, but I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good.” The Lord GOD All-Powerful touches the land, and the land shakes. Then everyone who lives in the land cries for the dead. The whole land rises like the Nile River and falls like the river of Egypt. The LORD builds his upper rooms above the skies; he sets their foundations on the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the land. The LORD is his name. The LORD says, “Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush. I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Crete, and the Arameans from Kir. I, the Lord GOD, am watching the sinful kingdom Israel. I will destroy it from off the earth, but I will not completely destroy Jacob’s descendants,” says the LORD. “I am giving the command to scatter the nation of Israel among all nations. It will be like someone shaking grain through a strainer, but not even a tiny stone falls through. All the sinners among my people will die by the sword— those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’