Zephaniah 2

A CALL TO REPENTANCE

2Gather yourselves together;

gather together, undesirable^B nation,

²before the decree^c takes effect

and the day passes like chaff,

before the burning of the Lord’s anger^d overtakes you,

before the day of the Lord’s anger overtakes you.^e

³Seek the Lord,^f all you humble^g of the earth,

who carry out what he commands.

Seek righteousness, seek humility;

perhaps you will be concealed^h

on the day of the Lord’s anger.

JUDGMENT AGAINST THE NATIONS

⁴For Gaza will be abandoned,

and Ashkelon will become a ruin.

Ashdod will be driven out at noon,

and Ekron will be uprooted.ⁱ

⁵Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,

nation of the Cherethites!^Aj

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

⁶The seacoast will become pasturelands

with caves for shepherds and pens for sheep.

⁷The 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

⁸I have heard the tauntingⁿ of Moab

and the insults of the Ammonites,^o

who have taunted my people

and threatened their territory.

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

the God of Israel—

Moab will be like Sodom^p

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.

¹⁰This is what they get for their pride,

because they have taunted and acted arrogantly^r

against the people of the Lord of Armies.

¹¹The 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.

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

¹³He will also stretch out his hand against the north

and destroy Assyria;

he will make Nineveh a desolate ruin,^t

dry as the desert.

¹⁴Herds will lie down in the middle of it,

every kind of wild animal.^B

Both eagle owls^C and herons^D

will roost in the capitals of its pillars.

Their calls will sound^E from the window,

but devastation^F will be on the threshold,

for he will expose the cedar work.^G

¹⁵This is the jubilant^u 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

scoffs^A and shakes his fist.