1 *The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of aHizkiah, *in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

2  †I will utterly consume all things from off †the land, saith the Lord.

3  I bwill consume cman and beast;

bI will consume cthe fowls of the heaven, and cdthe fishes of the sea,

And ethe ||stumblingblocks with the wicked;

And fI will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.

4  I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah,

And upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

And gI will cut off hthe remnant of Baal from this place,

And ithe name of jthe Chemarims with the priests;

5  And kthem that worship the host of heaven kupon the housetops;

And lthem that worship and lmthat swear ||by the Lord,

And lnthat swear by oMalcham;

6  And pthem that are turned back qfrom the Lord;

And rthose that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him.

7  sHold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God:

For tthe day of the Lord is at hand:

For uthe Lord hath prepared a sacrifice,

He hath †bid vhis guests.

8  And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice,

That I will †punish wthe princes, and wthe king’s children,

And all such as are xclothed with strange yapparel.

9  In the same day also will I punish all those zthat leap on the threshold,

Which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

10  And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord,

That there shall be the noise of a cry from athe fish gate,

And ban howling from cthe second,

And a great crashing from the hills.

11  dHowl, ye inhabitants of eMaktesh,

For all fthe merchant people are cut down;

All they that bear silver are cut off.

12  And it shall come to pass at that time,

That ghI will search Jerusalem hwith candles,

And punish the men that are †settled lon their lees:

mThat say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.

13  Therefore their goods shall become na booty, and their houses a desolation:

oThey shall also build houses, but not inhabit them;

And opthey shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

14  qThe great day of the Lord ris near,

It is near, and hasteth greatly,

Even the voice of the day of the Lord:

sThe mighty man shall tcry uthere bitterly.

15  vThat day is a day of wrath,

A day of wtrouble and wdistress,

A day of xwasteness and xdesolation,

yA day of darkness and gloominess,

yzA day of clouds and thick darkness,

16  A day of athe trumpet and aalarm

Against the fenced cities, and against the high btowers.

17  And cI will bring distress upon men, that dthey shall walk like blind men,

Because they have sinned against the Lord:

And etheir blood shall be poured out as dust, and their fflesh gas the dung.

18  hNeither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them

iIn the day of the Lord’s wrath;

But kthe whole land shall be devoured by lthe fire of mhis jealousy:

For nhe shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.