Chapter 9

1. I saw the LORD standing beside a megachurch gift shop, and he said: 

"Strike the columns until the roof caves in, 

and shatter the rafters on the heads of all the people;

and those who are left will not escape their fates; 

not one of them shall flee away, 

not one of them shall escape. 

2. Though they hide in their basements and bunkers, 

from there shall my hand take them; 

though they climb up their luxury high-rises, 

from there I will bring them down. 

3. Though they hide themselves in the wilderness, 

from there I will search out and take them; 

and even if they hide from my sight 

at the bottom of the sea, 

there I will command the sea itself 

to swallow them up. 

4. And though they try to save their own lives 

by surrendering to the enemy, 

there I will command their death, and they shall fall; 

and I will fix my eyes on them 

for violence and not for mercy". 

5. The Lord, GOD of hosts, 

he who melts the Earth with a touch, 

and all who live in it mourn, 

and all of it rises like floodwaters, 

and flows lifelessly back to the sea; 

6. who builds his throne above the cosmos, 

but makes his home upon the earth; 

who sets into motion the forces of nature, 

and commands them at his will--

the LORD is his name. 

 

7. "Are you not like the other nations to me, 

you haughty Americans?" says the LORD. 

"Did I not bring you here 

from the dredges of much older nations, 

just as the Indigenous Tribes 

came from Asia 

and the Asians from Africa? 

8. The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon 

every sinful kingdom, 

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth 

as I have done before

    except that I will not utterly destroy you," 

                      says the LORD. 

9. "For lo, I will command it on that day, 

    and shake this complacent nation 

    as a prospector shakes his pan of sediment, 

    but no gold nugget shall fall to the ground. 

10.      All the predators of my people who say,

'Our wealth and power will save us from catastrophe'

shall surely die, 

11. On that day I will raise up 

the slums and ghost towns that are fallen, 

and repair their neighborhoods, 

and revive their ruins, 

and rebuild them as in the days of old; 

12. in order that they may possess the residue of America

and all that is still good and unspoiled," 

says the LORD who does this. 

13. "The time is surely coming," says the LORD, 

when the land shall produce 

more than enough for all, 

and the people shall once again eat of the soil, 

not from a bag; 

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it. 

14. I will restore the fortunes of my people, 

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities 

and inhabit them; 

they shall plant vineyards 

and drink their own wine, 

and they shall make gardens 

and eat their own fruit. 

15. I will plant them upon their land, 

and they shall never again be plucked up 

out of the land that I have given them, 

says the LORD your God.