Zephaniah 2

Judgment of Judah’s Enemies

2Gather yourselves together! Now gather together,

O nation having no shame!

²Before the birth of the decree,

the day flies away like chaff;

before the fierce anger of Yahweh overtakes you;

before the day of the anger of Yahweh overtakes you.

³Seek Yahweh, all you afflicted of the land

who have fulfilled his law;

seek righteousness;

seek humility.

Perhaps you will be concealed

on the day of the anger of Yahweh.

⁴For Gaza will be abandoned,

and Ashkelon as a desolation.

As for Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away,

and Ekron shall be uprooted.

⁵Woe to you, inhabitants of the region of the sea,

people of the Kerethites!

The word of Yahweh is against you,

O Canaan, land of the Philistines.

I will destroy you until there is no inhabitant.^a

⁶And you, O region of the sea, shall become

pastures and meadows for shepherds

and sheep pens for the flocks.

⁷And it shall become a region

for the remnant of the house of Judah;

upon them they shall graze,

and in the houses of Ashkelon

they shall lie down in the evening.

For Yahweh their God shall be mindful of them,

and he will restore their fortunes.

⁸I have heard the reproaches of Moab

and the scorning of the Ammonites,^b

with which they have taunted my nation

and made boasts against their territory.

⁹“Therefore, as I live”—a declaration of Yahweh of hosts,

the God of Israel—

“Moab shall be as Sodom,

and the Ammonites^c like Gomorrah,

a place of weeds and salt pits

and a desolation forever.

The remnant of my people shall plunder them,

and the remainder of my nation shall possess them.”

¹⁰This shall be for them in place of their pride

because they mocked and boasted

against the people of Yahweh of hosts.

¹¹Yahweh will be awesome against them,

for he will destroy all the gods of the earth

and all the lands^d of the nations;

each in its place will bow down to him.

¹²You also, O Cushites,

they shall be killed by my sword.

¹³And he will stretch out his hand against the north,

and he will destroy Assyria

and will make Nineveh a desolation,

a dry wasteland like the desert.

¹⁴Herds shall lie down in her midst,

every wild animal of a nation;

even the desert owl and the screech owl

shall lodge on her capitals.

A voice shall hoot in the window;

rubble^e on the threshold;

for the cedar is laid bare.

¹⁵This is the city of rejoicing

that lived securely;

the one saying in her heart,

“I am, and there is none besides me.”^f

How she has become a desolation,

a lair for wild animals!

Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.