No One Escapes the Father's Hand
9 1 I saw the Sovereign Father standing beside the altar, and he said: "Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of them all; and those who remain I will kill with the sword. Not one of them will flee away, not one of them will escape." 2 Though they dig down into the grave, from there my hand will take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. a a v2 Sheol is the Hebrew name for the realm of the dead — the place all the departed go. 3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and seize them; though they conceal themselves from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them; I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.
5 The Sovereign, the Father of heaven's armies — he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn; all of it rises like the Nile and sinks like the Nile of Egypt. 6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth — our Father is his name.
7 "Are you not like the children of the Cushites to me, children of Israel? " declares our Father. "Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? 8 "Look, the eyes of the Sovereign Father are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth — yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," declares our Father. 9 "For look, I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes grain in a sieve, but not a pebble shall fall to the ground. 10 "All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword — those who say, 'Disaster will not overtake or meet us.
The Father Restores His People
11 "On that day I will raise up the fallen shelter of David, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," declares our Father, who does this. 13 "The days are coming, " declares our Father, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes shall overtake him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. b b v13 The picture: harvests will be so abundant that reaping grain overlaps the next planting and grape-treading runs into sowing season — a miracle of impossible plenty. 14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant them on their own land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them," says your Father.