Israel will be punished

9 Yahweh showed me another vision. In the vision, I saw him standing next to the altar. He said,

“Shake the tops of the pillars of the temple,

until they become loose and fall down,

so that even the foundation will shake.

Then cause the pieces of the temple to fall down on the people who are inside.

I will kill with a sword anyone who tries to flee;

no one will escape.

2 If they dig deep pits in the ground,

or if they try to climb up to the sky

in order to escape,

I will reach out and grab them.

3 If they go to the top of Carmel Mountain to escape,

I will search for them and seize them.

If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,

I will command the huge sea monster to bite them.

4 If their enemies capture them and force them to go to other countries,

I will command that they be killed there with swords.

I am determined [IDM] to get rid of them, not to help them.”

5 When the Commander of the armies of angels touches the earth, it melts,

and all over the earth many people die, and the others mourn for them.

It is as though Yahweh causes the earth repeatedly to rise and fall

like [SIM] the Nile River rises and falls.

6 He builds his beautiful palace in heaven,

and sets/causes the sky to be like a dome over the earth.

He scoops up the water from the ocean and puts it into clouds,

and then empties the clouds onto the earth.

His name is Yahweh.

7 And Yahweh says, “You people of Israel,

you are certainly [RHQ] now no more important to me than the people of Ethiopia.

I brought your ancestors here from Egypt,

but I also brought the people of Philistia from Crete Island,

and I brought the people of Syria from the Kir region.

8 I [SYN], Yahweh the Lord, have seen that you people in the kingdom of Israel are very sinful,

so I will ◄destroy you/wipe you off the earth►.

But I will not get rid of all you descendants [MTY] of Jacob.

That is what will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.

9 When I command it, it will be as though I will shake you Israeli people who are living in various nations,

like [MET] a farmer shakes a sieve to separate the stone pebbles from the grain,

in order that they do not fall on the ground with the grain.

10 From among my people,

all you sinful people who say, ‘We will not experience disasters; nothing evil will happen to us,’

will be killed by your enemies’ swords.”