The Lord is powerful

9 Then I saw a vision of the Lord. He was standing beside the altar in the temple. The Lord said, ‘Hit the tops of the pillars so that the whole foundation shakes! Cause the building to fall on the heads of all the people. If anyone is still alive after that, I will cause them to die in battle. Nobody will escape! ² They might try to dig deep into the earth to save themselves. But my strong hand will pull them out of there. They might climb up into the sky. But I will pull them down from there. ³ They might try to hide on the top of Mount Carmel. But I will find them and I will take them from there. They might try to hide from me deep down in the sea. But I will command the great sea snake to bite them. ⁴ Even when their enemies take them away as prisoners, I will cause them to die in battle. I have decided to destroy them. I will not help them.’

⁵ The Lord God Almighty will do this! When he touches the earth, it shakes. Everyone who lives there weeps. The ground rises up, like the water of the Nile river in Egypt. Then it goes down again, like the river. ⁶ The Lord builds his palace up into heaven, with its foundation on the earth. He takes up the water from the sea, and he pours it out on the earth as rain. The Lord is his name.

⁷ The Lord says, ‘You Israelite people, do not think that you are more important to me than the people of Ethiopia. It is true that I led you safely out of Egypt. But I also brought the Philistines from Crete. And I brought the Aramean people from Kir. ⁸ I, the Lord God, am carefully watching you Israelites. I see that you are a wicked nation, so I will remove you from the earth. But I will not completely destroy all the descendants of Jacob.’ That is what the Lord says.

⁹ ‘Listen to me! I will cause trouble to come to Israel's family, as they live among other nations. It will be like a person who shakes a sieve to remove dirt from grain. ¹⁰ Those among my people who do bad things will die. They say, “God will not send trouble to us. Nothing bad will happen to us.” But their enemies will kill those bad people in war.’

The Israelites will be strong again

¹¹ The Lord says, ‘When that time comes, I will make David's kingdom strong again. It has become like a broken hut, but I will repair it. I will cause it to become as good and strong as it was when king David ruled. ¹² You Israelites will fight the Edomites who still remain. You will win against them and the other nations that once belonged to me.’

That is what the Lord says, and he will do it.

¹³ The Lord says, ‘The time will come when food will grow very well in your fields. People will need to work quickly to cut down all their crops before they plough the ground to plant again. Lots of grapes will grow on your vines. People will work quickly to make wine from the grapes before they plant new vines. So much juice will pour out of the grapes that it will run down the hills!

¹⁴ I will bring the people of Israel, my people, back to their own land. Enemies destroyed their cities, but now my people will build them again. They will live safely in them. My people will plant vines. They will drink wine from their grapes. They will eat the fruit from trees that they have planted in their gardens. ¹⁵ And I will plant my people in their own land. That is the land that I have given to them, and nobody will ever pull them out of that land.’

That is what the Lord your God says.