“For lo, I will command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as one shakes with a sieve, yet not a grain shall fall to  the earth.” (Amos 9:9)   It was a fearful thing to be Jewish in the Old Testament. God gave the Law and if the Law was transgressed, which was obvious that it would be, the punishment of the Lord was frightening. Evil, plagues, “long-lasting sicknesses” and all the diseases of Egypt were to come to them until they would be destroyed.