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◄ UST AMOS ►

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AMO EN_UST en_English_ltr Tue Jan 12 2021 12:14:48 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) tc

1 This is the message that Yahweh gave to me, Amos. I am a man who raises sheep, and I am from the village of Tekoa. Yahweh showed me in a vision this message about Israel during the time when Uzziah was the king of Judah and Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash, was the king of Israel. This was two years before the great earthquake.

2 This is the message:

Yahweh is speaking powerfully, like the roar of a lion,

from Zion, in the middle of Jerusalem.

He is causing the pastures where shepherds take care of their sheep to dry up,

and even the forests on the top of Mount Carmel will wither.

3 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people of Damascus have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it,

because they cruelly attacked the people of the region of Gilead,

destroying them as people crush grain with iron-toothed threshing tools.

4 So I will send fire to destroy that place, including the palace that their king Hazael built,

and it will burn down the fortresses where his son, their king Ben-Hadad, has his armies.

5 I will smash the gate bars that protect the city of Damascus,

and I will get rid of the one who sits on the throne in the Valley of Aven

and the king who rules in the region of Beth Eden.

The people of Aram will become captives and will go to the land of Kir,”

says Yahweh.

6 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people of the city of Gaza have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it,

because they captured whole people groups and took them away

in order to sell them as slaves to the people of Edom.

7 So I will send fire to destroy the walls of Gaza,

and it will burn down the fortresses of that city.

8 I will get rid of the one who sits on the throne in the city of Ashdod

and the king who rules in the city of Ashkelon.

I will also powerfully punish the people of the city of Ekron,

and all the people of the region of Philistia who are still alive will die,”

says my Lord Yahweh.

9 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people of the city of Tyre have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it,

because they also captured whole people groups and took them away to Edom,

and they ignored the treaty that they had made with another nation.

10 So I will send fire to destroy the walls of Tyre,

and it will burn down the fortresses of that city.”

11 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people of Edom have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it,

because they attacked the people of Israel, who descended from Esau’s brother Jacob, and killed them with swords.

They did not act mercifully toward them at all.

They were constantly wrathful to the people of Israel,

and they kept encouraging each other to stay angry with the people of Israel always.

12 So I will send fire to destroy the region of Teman,

and it will burn down the fortresses of the city of Bozrah.”

13 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people of Ammon have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it,

because their soldiers even ripped open the pregnant women of the region of Gilead

when they attacked it in order to enlarge their own territory.

14 So I will start a fire that will destroy the walls of the city of Rabbah,

and it will burn down the fortresses of that city.

During that battle, the enemies will shout loudly.

They will come as quickly and violently as a strong windstorm.

15 Then the king of Ammon will become a captive and will go to another country,

and his officials will go with him,”

says Yahweh.

2 This is what Yahweh says: “The people of Moab have sinned again and again,

so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it, because they burned the bones of the king of Edom until only lime remained. 2 So I will send a fire to destroy the nation of Moab,

and it will burn down the fortresses of the city of Kirioth. Many people of Moab will die while soldiers shout, blow trumpets, and destroy Moab. 3 I will get rid of the ruler of Moab, and I will kill all of Moab’s leaders along with him. That is what I, Yahweh, say.”

4 This is what Yahweh says: “The people of Judah have sinned again and again, so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it, because they have rejected the instructions that I, Yahweh, gave them, and they have not obeyed my commands. The false gods that they worship have deceived them, the same false gods that their ancestors chose to worship. 5 So I will send a fire to destroy the nation of Judah, and it will completely burn down the fortresses of the city of Jerusalem.”

6 This is what Yahweh says: “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, so I will certainly punish them and will not change my mind about it, because they sell good people in order to get silver, and they sell needy people to get a pair of sandals. 7 They oppress poor people as though they are crushing them into the dirt, and they are unjust to people who are suffering. A man and his father both have sexual relations with the same servant girl, and so they dishonor me, the holy God. 8 They take the cloaks from poor people as a guarantee that those people would repay what they had borrowed. Then, instead of returning them at the end of the day, they lie down on them beside the altars where they worship. They force people to pay fines to them, and then use the money to buy wine that they drink in the temple of their God.

9 But I am the one who destroyed the Amorite people group on behalf of your ancestors, even though those people were very tall like cedar trees and very strong like oak trees. I destroyed them completely. 10 I am the one who brought you Israelite people from being slaves in the land of Egypt, and then I led your ancestors through the wilderness for forty years, so that I could give you the land of the Amorite people as your own. 11 Over the years, I chose some of your young men to become prophets, and others to be Nazirites. You Israelite people certainly know that this is true! This is what I, Yahweh, declare. 12 But you forced the Nazirites to drink wine, and you commanded the prophets to not tell people the messages that I, Yahweh, give to them!

13 So now I will make you unable to escape what will happen to you right where you are, just as a cart loaded with too much grain cannot move from where it is. 14 At that time, even people who can run quickly will not be able to escape, and even strong people will not be strong enough, and even warriors will not be able to rescue themselves. 15 Even those who shoot arrows will not be able to stand and do so, and even those who can run quickly will not be able to escape, and even those who have a horse to ride will not be able to save themselves. 16 At that time, even the bravest of the mighty men will run away naked. This is what I, Yahweh, declare.”

3 You people of Israel, listen to this message that Yahweh has spoken against you. He is speaking against all of the descendants of the people whom he brought up out of the land of Egypt. He says this: 2 “From among all of the families of people on the earth, I chose only you to belong to me. That is why I must now punish you for all of the ways that you have sinned.”

3 Two people do not travel together unless they have agreed to do that. 4 A lion does not roar in the forest unless it has caught an animal to eat, and a young lion does not growl in its den unless it has caught something. 5 A bird does not get caught in a trap on the ground unless someone has set a trap for it, and a trap does not spring up to catch an animal if there is nothing to catch. 6 If someone blows an alarm on a shofar in a city, the people there become afraid, and if something terrible happens in a city, then Yahweh has done it. 7 In the same way, the Lord Yahweh does not do something unless he has first revealed his plans to his servants the prophets. 8 When a lion roars, everyone is afraid; similarly, when the Lord Yahweh speaks, the prophets must proclaim what he says.

9 Yahweh says, “Announce this to the rulers who live in the fortresses in the city of Ashdod and to the rulers who live in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say to them, ‘Gather together on the hills around the city of Samaria, and see how the people there are panicking, and how the powerful people are oppressing the other people there.’\” 10 Yahweh declares, “The people who live in Samaria do not know how to do what is right. They violently rob other people, and they fill their fortresses with the things that they steal.”

11 So this is what the Lord Yahweh says to them: “An enemy army will come and surround your land. They will tear down your fortifications, and they will carry away the valuable things in your fortresses.” 12 This is what Yahweh says: “When a lion attacks a sheep, sometimes a shepherd can grab from the lion only two legs of the sheep or a piece of its ear. Similarly, only a few of you people of Israel who live in Samaria will survive, along with only a side of a bed or a piece of a couch.”

13 The Lord Yahweh, the God who commands the armies of angels, declares, “Listen, and warn the descendants of Jacob: 14 Be aware that when I punish the people of Israel for the sins that they have committed, I will also destroy the altars at Bethel. I will cut off the horns that are on the corners of the main altar, and they will fall to the ground. 15 I will tear down the houses where people live in the winter and the houses where they live in the summer. I will destroy the beautiful houses that they have decorated with ivory. I will destroy the mansions. This will surely happen, because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

4 Listen to this message, you wealthy women of the city of Samaria! You have indulged yourselves and grown fat, just as the cattle in the region of Bashan grow fat.

You oppress poor people,

and you cause needy people to suffer.

Then you say to your husbands,

“Bring us more wine to drink!”

2 But Yahweh our Lord says, “Because I am holy, I solemnly promise this:

Indeed the time is coming when your enemies will capture you and take you away, as easily as someone catches fish with hooks.

They will do this to every last one of you.

3 The enemies will break through your city walls, and then each of you women will go straight out through the gap in front of her.

Each of you will flee toward Harmon.

I, Yahweh, declare that this will happen.

4 You act like I am telling you this: Go to the town of Bethel and sin! Go to the town of Gilgal and sin even more!

Bring your animal sacrifices to the altars there every morning,

and bring a tenth of your crops every third day!

5 Burn bread that contains yeast as an offering to thank me,

and announce the offerings that you bring willingly!

Make sure to loudly brag about them!

I say these things because that is what you Israelite people love to do.

I, Yahweh your Lord, declare this.

6 “I am also the one who caused you to have no food at all in any of your cities and towns,

yet you did not stop sinning and become loyal to me again. I, Yahweh, declare this.

7 I am also the one who kept you from getting rain when there were still three months before your crops were ready to harvest.

Sometimes I sent rain on one town

and held it back from another town.

I made it rain on some fields,

but I gave no rain to other fields, so the crops there dried up.

8 People from towns without water would stagger to a town that did have water,

but they could not get enough water to drink.

But even so you did not stop sinning and become loyal to me again. I, Yahweh, declare this.

9 I made your crops dry up and have disease.

Locusts ate up everything in your many gardens and vineyards and on your fig trees and olive trees,

yet you did not stop sinning and become loyal to me again. I, Yahweh, declare this.

10 I made many of you become diseased, just as I had done to the people of Egypt long ago.

I caused your enemies to kill your young men in wars, and I let your enemies capture your horses.

I made you smell the stench of their corpses in the camps where they died,

yet you did not stop sinning and become loyal to me again. I, Yahweh, declare this.

11 I destroyed some of you, just as I destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah long ago.

Those of you who survived were like a burning stick that someone grabs out of a fire before it burns up completely,

yet you did not stop sinning and become loyal to me again. I, Yahweh, declare this.

12 Because of that, you people of Israel, this is what I am going to do to you. And because I am going to do this to you, prepare to truly meet me, your God, people of Israel!”

13 Prepare yourselves, because this is who he is: he is the one who formed the mountains and who creates the wind.

He reveals to people what they are thinking.

He makes the morning light and the darkness.

Even the highest mountains are small things to him.

He is Yahweh, God who commands the heavenly armies; that is his name!

5 You people of Israel, listen to this sad funeral song that I am singing about you:

2 Enemies have devastated my dear people of Israel,

and they are unable to defend themselves.

The enemies have come into their land and can do to them whatever they want to do there.

There is no one to help them.

3 You will need this sad funeral song because Yahweh our Lord says this about Israel: “When your enemies attack you, a town that sends out a thousand soldiers to fight will have only a hundred who survive, and a town that sends out a hundred soldiers will have only ten who survive.”

4 But Yahweh also says this to you people of Israel: “Sincerely worship me again, and then you will live.

5 Do not go to the town of Bethel to worship anything there,

and do not go to the town of Gilgal,

and do not travel to the town of Beersheba to worship there, either.

Your enemies will certainly take the people of Gilgal away to a foreign country,

and the people of Bethel will experience evil things because they worship evil things.”

6 Sincerely worship Yahweh again, and then you will live.

If you do not do that, Yahweh will punish you descendants of Joseph as suddenly and fiercely as a fire spreads.

Yahweh will punish you like a fire that destroys everything, and that no one in Bethel will be able to stop.

7 I am talking to you people who do not decide things fairly. Instead, you make life as bitter as the taste of wormwood for people.

You consider that living in the right way is as worthless as trash on the ground.

8 There is one who created the star groups that people call the Pleiades and Orion. Every morning he turns the darkness into daylight, and every evening he turns the daylight into darkness. He summons the waters in the sea and pours them out as rain on the surface of the earth. The name of that one is Yahweh!

9 He suddenly destroys strong people,

and destroys the strong walls of cities.

10 You people hate any leader who officially corrects people who do wrong,

and you hate anyone who tells the truth.

11 So, because you oppress poor people and force them to give you part of their grain, this is what will happen: Although you have built large mansions out of cut stone, you will not live in them. Although you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink the wine that comes from them.

12 This will happen because I know that you have sinned very many times,

and that the things that you have done are terrible.

You oppress people who do what is right, and you accept bribes to do what is wrong,

and at the city gate where leaders decide legal matters you treat poor people unjustly and send them away.

13 So at that time wise people will be quiet,

because it will be customary in that time for people to do evil things.

14 Start doing what is good, and stop doing what is evil,

in order that you may stay alive.

If you do that, Yahweh, God the commander of the heavenly armies, will help you,

just as you claim that he does.

15 Hate what is evil, and love what is good,

and make sure that people decide things fairly at the city gatewhere leaders decide legal matters.

If you do that, maybe Yahweh, God the commander of the heavenly armies,

will act kindly toward you descendants of Joseph who are still alive.

16 So this is what Yahweh, God the commander of the heavenly armies, our Lord, says: “People will be weeping loudly in all the public squares, and in all the streets people will cry out, ‘This is terrible! This is terrible!’ People will summon the farmers to come and mourn, and they will summon those who lament at funerals to wail.

17 People will be weeping in all the vineyards,

because I will come and punish you.” That is what Yahweh says.

18 Terrible things will happen to you people who long for the day when Yahweh comes!

You should not think that the day when Yahweh comes will be good for you.

On that day Yahweh will punish you severely, and nothing good will happen to you.

19 On that day, you will be like a man who runs away from a lion

but then meets a bear;

or who flees into his house and rests his hand on the wall,

and a snake bites him.

20 On the day when Yahweh judges people, he will surely punish you severely and nothing good will happen to you.

Yes, it will be a time when you are deeply sad; you will not be happy at all.

21 Yahweh says, “I hate your religious celebrations;

I completely reject them, and your assemblies when you gather to worship do not please me at all.

22 Even if you offer to me animals that you completely burn on the altar, and offerings of grain,

I will not accept them.

Even if you offer me your best animals as fellowship sacrifices,

I will pay no attention to them.

23 Your songs are just noise to me; stop singing them.

I refuse to listen to the music that you play on your harps.

24 Instead, you should be treating people justly,

and you should always be doing what is right.

You should be doing these things continually, like a stream of water that flows and never stops.

25 You people of Israel, when your ancestors traveled through the wilderness for forty years,

they did not bring animal sacrifices and grain offerings to me.

26 Instead, you have carried the idols that you made for yourselves:

Sikkuth, the god you treated as your king,

and Kiyyun, the star-god that you worshiped.

27 So I will force you to go far away, beyond the city of Damascus, into exile.”

That is what the one whose name is Yahweh, God the commander of the heavenly armies, says.

6 Terrible things will happen to you people in Zion who do not worry about anything,

and also to you leaders in the city of Samaria who think that you are safe there.

You are the prominent men of Israel, the nation that thinks it is the most important nation of all,

the men to whom the people of Israel come for you to help them.

2 Go and look at the city of Kalneh. Then go on to the city of Hamath Rabbah,

and then go down to the city of Gath in Philistia.

Those cities are not better than your kingdoms, and their territory is not larger than yours.

3 Terrible things will happen to you who refuse to think about the day when Yahweh will punish you,

but by your own actions you are shortening the time before violent people will come and rule over you.

4 Terrible things will happen to you who lie on expensive beds and lounge on your couches,

eating the meat of the most special sheep from your flocks and of the fattened calves from your stalls.

5 Terrible things will happen to you who sing idly to the sound of your harps

and try to be like King David by inventing musical instruments for yourselves.

6 Terrible things will happen toyou who drink wine by the bowlful and rub the finest oils on your skin,

but who do not grieve at all that the descendants of Joseph are destroying themselves.

7 Because of all of that, soon you will be among the first ones whom your enemies will force to go into exile,

and your feasting and lounging on couches will come to an end.

8 The Lord Yahweh has solemnly sworn this on his own life. Yes, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares it:

“I despise the nation of which the descendants of Jacob are so proud,

and I hate their fortresses.

So I will deliver each city and everyone in it to their enemies.”

9 When that happens, even if only ten men remain in a single house, they will all die. 10 A dead man’s relative, the one who will burn his corpse, will carry the dead body out of the house. He will call to anyone still hiding in the farthest corner of the house, “Is anyone else there with you?” That person will answer, “No one.” Then the relative will say, “Say no more! Especially we must not mention Yahweh’s name!”

11 The reason is this: Yahweh is about to command the enemy soldiers to attack you,

and they will shatter all the houses, from large to small ones, into little pieces.

12 Horses do not gallop on rocky cliffs, and no one plows there with oxen.

Yet you have done something even more absurd:

instead of treating people justly, you kill them,

and instead of doing good things for each other, you make each other angry and resentful.

13 You are proud because you captured the town of Lo Debar,

and you boast, “We captured the town of Karnaim for ourselves because we are so strong!”

14 But this is what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares:

“Listen, you people of Israel! I am about to bring a foreign nation to attack you.

Its army will oppress you throughout your entire land, from Lebo Hamath in the far north to the brook of the Arabah in the far south.”

7 Yahweh our Lord showed me a vision. In the vision, he was forming a swarm of locusts to destroy our crops. This was happening right after the workers had harvested the king’s share of the hay, when the second crop of the season was just starting to grow. 2 In the vision, when the locusts had finished eating everything green in the land, I cried out, “Yahweh our Lord, please forgive us! We people of Jacob are weak and helpless; we will not be able to survive this!” 3 So Yahweh changed his mind about this. Yahweh said, “This will not happen.”

4 Then Yahweh our Lord showed me another vision. In it, Yahweh our Lord was summoning fire to punish his people. The fire dried up the great deep waters and then was burning up the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Yahweh our Lord, please stop! We people of Jacob will not be able to survive this, because we are weak and helpless!” 6 So Yahweh changed his mind about this also. Lord Yahweh said, “This will not happen, either.”

7 Then Yahweh showed me another vision. In it, I saw the Lord standing beside a wall. Someone had built the wall very straight, using a plumb line. Yahweh was holding a plumb line in his hand. 8 Yahweh asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” I replied, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Look, I am about to test my people the Israelites to see if they are living rightly, just as a builder uses a plumb line to see if a wall is straight. I will no longer hold back from punishing them for their sin.

9 I will destroy the hilltop shrines where the descendants of Isaac worship idols,

and I will demolish the other holy places in Israel,

and I will send men with swords to end the dynasty of King Jeroboam.”

10 Then Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel. In the message he said, “Amos is plotting against you right here among the people of Israel. He is saying so much against you that the people of this land cannot bear to hear it. 11 In fact, this is what Amos keeps saying:

‘Someone will kill Jeroboam with a sword,

and an army will force the people of Israel to leave their own land and become exiles in a foreign country.’ ”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Run away to the country of Judah! Earn your living there, and do your prophesying there! 13 But you have prophesied here at Bethel for the last time, because this is the king’s holy place; it is a royal temple.”

14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a professional prophet, and I do not belong to any group of prophets. Instead, I take care of sheep, and I also take care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But Yahweh took me away from tending the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people in Israel.’ 16 So now listen to what Yahweh has to say to you. You keep telling me, ‘Do not prophesy against the people of Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac!’ 17 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says to you:

‘When your enemies come, your wife will become a prostitute in this city,

and they will kill your sons and your daughters with their swords,

and they will measure your land with a rope and divide it up among themselves.

As for you, you will die in a foreign, pagan country,

and your enemies will certainly force the people of Israel to become exiles, far from their own land.’

8 Yahweh, my Lord, showed me a vision. I looked, and in the vision I saw a basket of ripe fruit. 2 He said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I replied, “I see a basket of ripe fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “It is time for me to put an end to my people, the Israelites! I will no longer hold back from punishing them for their sin. 3 At that time, the people who sing songs in the temple will wail loudly instead of singing. There will be so many corpses that people will throw them everywhere. Everyone, be silent!” This is what Yahweh, my Lord, declares.

4 Listen to this, you people who oppress needy people and get rid of the poor people in the land! 5 You say to yourselves, “We wish the new moon festival would be over, so that we could start selling our grain again! We wish the Sabbath day would be over, so that we could start selling our wheat again! Then we can cheat people by making the baskets that we measure our grain in smaller than standard, and by making the weights for measuring the buyer’s silver heavier than standard, and we can also make our scales weigh dishonestly. 6 Then we can use our silver to buy poor people to be our slaves. We can buy needy people for only a pair of sandals. We can even sell the worthless chaff mixed in with the wheat!”

7 Yahweh has solemnly sworn by the very land that he gave to you descendants of Jacob: “I will certainly never forget any of the evil things that you have done. 8 Because of the evil things that you have done, it will be as though the land itself will writhe, and everyone who lives in the land will mourn. It will be as though the whole land will heave up and down, just as the Nile River in Egypt floods and then sinks back down again.”

9 Yahweh, my Lord, declares this: “At that time, when I punish you, I will make the sun go down at noon. Yes, I will make the earth become dark during the daytime. 10 Because of what I will do, your religious festivals will become times when you mourn, and instead of singing joyful songs you will wail funeral dirges. All of you will wear rough sackcloth and shave your heads to show that you are grieving. Because of what I will do, you will be as sorrowful as when parents grieve for their only son who has died. By the time I stop punishing you, you will be grieving bitterly.”

11 Yahweh, my Lord, declares this: “Listen! There will soon be a time when I will cause something to become very scarce in the land. It will not be a time when people lack food or thirst for water. Instead, it will be a time when people will not be able to hear any message from me, Yahweh. 12 People will wander everywhere, staggering from one coastline to another and from the north to the east. They will roam around, searching for a message from me, Yahweh, but they will not get one. 13 At that time, even the beautiful young women and the strong young men will faint because they are so thirsty. 14 These are the people who make solemn promises using the name of the shameful idol in Samaria. Some of them make promises using the name of the god that people worship in Dan, and others make promises using the name of the god that people travel to worship in Beersheba. All of those people will fall down and die, and they will never get up again.”

9 In another vision, I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said,

“Strike the tops of the pillars of the temple so hard that the thresholds shake,

and shatter them so that the pieces fall down on all the people there and crush them.

I will cause enemies to kill with swords anyone who survives.

None of them will be able to run away and escape.

2 Even if they dig down to the place where dead people go as they try to escape from me,

I will reach down there and seize them.

Even if they climb up to the sky,

I will bring them down from there.

3 Even if they hide themselves on the top of Mount Carmel,

I will search for them there and capture them.

Even if they hide from me at the bottom of the sea,

I will command the sea snake there to bite them.

4 Even if their enemies capture them and force them to march away as exiles,

I will command those enemies to kill them there with their swords.

I will continually do things to harm them,

not to help them.”

5 Yahweh our Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

is the one who can make the earth melt by touching it,

so that everyone who lives in it mourns.

He can make the whole land rise up and then sink down again,

just as the Nile River in Egypt rises and falls.

6 He made the stairway to his palace in the sky,

and he set his dome of the sky firmly in place above the earth.

He gathers up the water from the sea

and pours it out as rain on the surface of the ground.

The name of the one who does all this is Yahweh!

7 Yahweh declares this: “You people of Israel, you are just like the people of Cush to me.

It is true that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from the land of Caphtor and the Arameans from the region of Kir.

8 Listen! I, Yahweh your Lord, am fully aware of how sinful you people are in the kingdom of Israel,

so I will destroy your kingdom and remove it from existing on the earth.

However, I will not completely destroy all of the descendants of Jacob.”

That is what Yahweh declares.

9 Yahweh also says, “Listen! This will happen because I am giving the command

to send you people of Israel to live among all the nations,

and there it will be as though I am shaking you in a sieveto sort you out into those who are faithful and those who are not faithful, just as a farmer shakes a sieve to separate grain from the stones.

It will be as though not one pebble slips through the sieve and falls to the ground,

because not one of the unfaithful people among you will escape.

10 All of the sinful ones among my people will die as enemies kill them with swords.

They are the ones who say that nothing bad will ever happen to them.

11 At that time I will restore

the kingdom that King David once ruled, the kingdom that sinners have ruined.

I will repair it and rebuild it,

and I will cause it to prosper again, as it did long ago,

12 so that the kingdom of my people may contain those who remain in Edom

and those who belong to me in all of the nations.”

That is what Yahweh declares, and he is the one who will do it.

13 Yahweh declares this: “Listen! The time is coming when your crops will grow so well it will be as if

those who plow the ground will catch up with those who are still harvesting the grain,

and those who tread on the grapes will still be working when the sowers are ready to start planting the seed.

There will be so much sweet wine

that it will seem as if it will flow down from the mountains and that all of the hills will melt with it.

14 I will bring back those of my people Israel who had been captives in other nations.

They will rebuild the cities that now lie in ruins, and they will live in them.

They will plant vineyards and drink the wine that comes from them,

and they will plant gardens and eat the fruit that grows in them.

15 I will settle my people securely in their own land,

and no one will ever remove them again from the land that I gave to them.”

That is what Yahweh your God says.