CHAPTER 9 Nov. 29 
God’s People to Be Destroyed 
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. 2Though they dig into Sheol, there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to the sky, I will bring them down from there. 3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there; and though they be hidden from My sight in 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 set My eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 5For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is He who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 6It is He who builds His chambers in the heavens, and has founded His vault on the earth; He who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is His name. 7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to Me, you children of Israel?, says Yahweh. Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8See, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says Yahweh. 9For, see, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall to the earth. 10All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, those who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake us nor meet us’. 
Rebuilding
11 After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it as in the days of old; 12that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who makes these things known from of old. 13See, the days come, says Yahweh, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. 14I will bring My people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. 15I will plant them in their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, says Yahweh your God.

Commentary

9:11,12 We have used the Septuagint version of these verses, because this is the form which is quoted under inspiration in Acts 15:14-18. There, James quotes these verses to prove that Gentiles could become called by God’s Name through being baptized into the Name of His Son, the Lord Jesus; and that this process was not predicated upon circumcision. We see, therefore, the huge weight given by the early Christians to every Old Testament word of God. Note that Acts 15:14 speaks of God visiting the Gentiles, and quotes Am. 9:12 about the Gentiles seeking the Lord as proof of this. God is in search of man, and some men are in search of Him. They meet in that moment of baptism into His Name as it is in His Son, and the union is a wonderful and eternal one.