JUDGMENT AGAINST THE NATIONS

4 For Gaza will be abandoned,

and Ashkelon will become a ruin.

Ashdod will be driven out at noon,

and Ekron will be uprooted.i

5 Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,

nation of the Cherethites!B,j

The word of the Lord is against you,k

Canaan, land of the Philistines:

I will destroy you until there is no one left.l

6 The seacoast will become pasturelands

with caves for shepherds and pens for sheep.

7 The coastland will belong

to the remnant of the house of Judah;

they will find pasture there.

They will lie down in the evening

among the houses of Ashkelon,

for the Lord their God will return to them

and restore their fortunes.m

8 I have heard the tauntingn of Moab

and the insults of the Ammonites,o

who have taunted my people

and threatened their territory.

9 Therefore, as I live—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies,

the God of Israel—

Moab will be like Sodomp

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah:q

a place overgrown with weeds,

a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland.

The remnant of my people will plunder them;

the remainder of my nation will dispossess them.

10 This is what they get for their pride,

because they have taunted and acted arrogantlyr

against the people of the Lord of Armies.

11 The Lord will be terrifying to them

when he starves all the gods of the earth.

Then all the distant coasts and islands of the nations

will bow in worship to him,

each in its own place.

12 You Cushites will also be slain by my sword.s

13 He will also stretch out his hand against the north

and destroy Assyria;

he will make Nineveh a desolate ruin,t

dry as the desert.

14 Herds will lie down in the middle of it,

every kind of wild animal.C

Both eagle owlsD and heronsE

will roost in the capitals of its pillars.

Their calls will soundF from the window,

but devastationG will be on the threshold,

for he will expose the cedar work.H

15 This is the jubilantu city

that lives in security,

that says to herself:

I exist, and there is no one else.

What a desolation she has become,

a place for wild animals to lie down!

Everyone who passes by her

scoffsI and shakes his fist.

WOE TO OPPRESSIVE JERUSALEM

3 Woe to the city that is rebelliousA,a and defiled,b

the oppressive city!

2 She has not obeyed;c

she has not accepted discipline.d

She has not trustede in the Lord;

she has not drawn near to her God.

3 TheB princes within her are roaring lions;f

her judges are wolves of the night,g

which leave nothing forC the morning.

4 Her prophets are recklessh—

treacherous men.

Her priests profane the sanctuary;

they do violence to instruction.i

5 The righteous Lord is in her;j

he does no wrong.k

He applies his justice morning by morning;

he does not fail at dawn,

yet the one who does wrong knows no shame.l

6 I have cut off nations;

their corner towersm are destroyed.

I have laid waste their streets,

with no one to pass through.

Their cities lie devastated,

without a person, without an inhabitant.n

7 I said: You will certainly fear me

and accept correction.

Then her dwelling placeD

would not be cut off

based on all that I had allocated to her.

However, they became more corrupt

in all their actions.

8 Therefore, wait for meo—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

until the day I rise up for plunder.E

For my decision is to gather nations,

to assemble kingdoms,

in order to pour out my indignationp on them,

all my burning anger;

for the whole earth will be consumed

by the fire of my jealousy.q