3. If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will find them there and take them from that place. If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the snake, and it will bite them.
4. If they are captured and taken away by their enemies, I will command the sword, and it will kill them there. Yes, I will watch over them, but I will watch for ways to give them troubles, not for ways to do good things.”
5. The Lord GOD All-Powerful will touch the land, and the land will melt. Then all the people who live in the land will cry for the dead. The land will rise and fall like the Nile River in Egypt.
6. He built his upper rooms above the skies. He put his skies over the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out as rain on the land. YAHWEH is his name.
7. This is what the Lord says: “Israel, you are like the Ethiopians to me. I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir.”
8. The Lord GOD is watching this sinful kingdom. The Lord says, “I will wipe Israel off the face of the earth, but I will never completely destroy Jacob’s family.
9. I am giving the command to scatter the people of Israel among all nations. But it will be like someone sifting flour. A person shakes flour through a sifter. The good flour falls through, but the bad lumps are caught.