No One Escapes the Father's Hand
There is nowhere to hide from our Father — not the grave, not heaven, not the sea floor. Yet the shaking is a sieve, and not one pebble falls. The last word is rebuilding: David's fallen shelter raised, ruined cities lived in, Israel planted and never uprooted again.
9 1I saw the Sovereign Father standing by the altar, and he said: "Strike the pillar tops so the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of them all; those left I will kill with the sword. Not one will flee, not one will escape. 2Though 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. 3Though 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. 4Though 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."
5The 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, 6who 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? 8Look, 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 will fall to the ground. 10All the sinners of my people will 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, 12that 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 will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes will overtake him who sows the seed; the mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it. a a 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. 14I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. 15I will plant them on their own land, and they will never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them," says your Father.
