“·Smash [Strike] the top of the pillars
    so that even the ·bottom of the doors [thresholds] will shake.
·Make the pillars fall [^LStrike/Shatter them] on the people’s heads;
    anyone left alive I will kill with a sword.
Not one person will get away;
    no one will escape.
² If they dig down ·as deep as the place of the dead [or into the depths of the earth; ^Linto Sheol],
    ·I [^LMy hand] will pull them up from there.
If they climb up into heaven,
    I will bring them down from there.
³ If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,
    I will ·find them [hunt them down] and ·take them away [seize them].
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
    I will command ·a snake [or the serpent; ^Cperhaps the mythological beast symbolic of chaos] to bite them.
⁴ If they are ·captured and taken away [driven into exile] by their enemies,
    I will command the sword to ·kill [slay] them.
I will ·keep watch over them [fix my eyes on them],
    but ·I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good [^Lfor evil/harm, not for good/prosperity].”

⁵ The Lord God ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; ^Tof hosts] touches the land,
    and the land ·shakes [dissolves; melts].
    Then everyone who lives in the land ·cries for the dead [mourns].
The whole ·land [or earth] rises like the Nile River
    and ·falls [sinks; subsides] like the river of Egypt [8:8].
⁶ The Lord builds his ·upper rooms [or steps] ·above the skies [in the heavens];
    he sets their foundations on the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out on the ·land [^Lface of the earth/land; ^Cas rain].
    The Lord is his name.
⁷ The Lord says,
“Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush [^CEthiopia].
·I brought [^LDid I not bring…?] Israel out of the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from ·Crete [^LCaphtor],
    and the Arameans [^CSyrians] from Kir.
⁸ [^LLook; ^TBehold] I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom [^CIsrael].
I will destroy it
    from ·off [^Lthe face of] the earth,
but I will not completely destroy
    ·Jacob’s descendants [^Lthe house of Jacob],” says the Lord.
⁹ “[^LFor look/^Tbehold] I am giving the command
    to ·scatter [^Lshake] the nation of Israel among all nations.
It will be like someone shaking grain through a ·strainer [sieve],
    but not even a ·tiny stone [pebble; or kernel of grain] falls ·through [^Lto the ground].
¹⁰ All the sinners among my people
    will die by the sword—
those who say,
    ‘·Nothing bad will happen to us [^LDisaster will not approach and meet us].’

¹³ The Lord says, “The time is coming when there will be all kinds of food.
·People will still be harvesting crops
    when it’s time to plow again [^LThe plowman will overtake the reaper].
·People will still be taking the juice from grapes
    when it’s time to plant again [^L…and the treader of grapes (will overtake) the one who sows the seed].
Wine will drip from the mountains
    and pour from the hills [^Csymbols of great prosperity].
¹⁴ I will bring my people Israel back from ·captivity [exile];
    they will build the ruined cities again,
    and they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them;
    they will plant ·gardens [or orchards] and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant my people on their land,
    and they will not be ·pulled out again [uprooted]
    from the land which I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.