The destruction of the temple at Bethel
9
📚I saw 📖 the Lord standing by the altar 📖, and he said,“Strike 📖 the top of the doorposts,
so that the thresholds shake,
and break on the heads of them all.
And I will slay 📖 the last of them
with the sword.
The one among them who flees
will not get away,
and the one among them
who escapes will not be rescued.
2 📚Though they dig into hell, 📖
my hand will take them from there.
Though they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down from there.
3 📚And though they hide themselves
on the top of Carmel 📖,
I will search them out and take them
from there.
And though they hide from my sight
in the bottom of the sea,
I will give a command to the serpent there,
and it will bite them.
4 📚And though they go into captivity
in front of their enemies,
I will command the sword there,
and it will slay them.
And I will set my eyes on them
for disaster and not for good 📖”.
9:2-4 Compare Ps 139:7-12. For Israel there would be no possibility of escape from God Who is everywhere.⚜
5 📚The Lord God of hosts is he who
touches the land, and it melts 📖,
and all who live there mourn,
and all of it rises like the river Nile
and subsides like the river
of Egypt 📖.
6 📚He it is who builds his upper
rooms in the heavens,
and places his foundation on the earth.
He it is who calls for the waters
of the sea,
and pours them out on the surface
of the earth.
The LORD 📖 is his name.
9:6 A beautiful picture of the work of the Creator. It was He with Whom Israel had to deal.⚜
7 📚“Are you not like children
of the Ethiopians 📖 to me,
O children of Israel?”
says the LORD.
“Did I not bring Israel up out
of the land of Egypt?
And the Philistines from Caphtor 📖,
and the Syrians from Kir?
8 📚See, the eyes 📖 of the Lord God
are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face
of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy 📖
the house of Jacob,
says the LORD.
9 📚For, see, I will give a command,
and will sift the house of Israel
among all the nations 📖,
like grain is sifted in a sieve 📖,
yet not the smallest grain will fall
onto the earth.
10 📚All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword,
9:10 Though a remnant of the people would survive, there would be no hope for those who went on in their sins.⚜
all those who say,
‘The disaster will not overtake
or meet us.’
A promise of the future restoration of Israel
11 📚“In that day 📖 I will raise up
the tabernacle of David 📖
which has fallen,
and repair the broken places,
and raise up its ruins,
and build it up as in the days of old,
12 📚so that they may possess
the remnant of Edom,
and of all the nations which
are called by my name”,
says the LORD who will do this.
9:11-12 In Acts 15:15-18 James refers to these verses. His purpose was not to show that they were completely fulfilled in his day, but to show that Gentile peoples would also bear God’s name - that is, find salvation in Christ.⚜
13 📚“See, the days are coming”,
says the LORD,
“when the plowman will overtake
the reaper,
and the treader of grapes him
who sows seed.
And the mountains will drip
with sweet wine,
and all the hills will melt.
14 📚And I will reverse 📖 the captivity
of my people Israel,
and they will build the ruined cities
and live in them,
and they will plant vineyards and drink
the wine from them,
and they will make gardens
and eat their fruit.
15 📚And I will plant them in their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from their land which I have
given them 📖”,
9:15 Here is a plain declaration that the final restoration of the people of Israel to the land of Israel would be permanent (compare Joel 3:20). Since this was not the case when the Jews returned from Babylon in the 6th century BC, God is speaking of another “planting” of Israel in their land. Up to this present century this has never happened. Whether the existence of Israel as a nation in the land now is in fulfillment of this verse is not clear – at least to the author of these notes. But it is clear that Israel will eventually be planted permanently there.⚜
says the LORD your God.