Zephaniah 1

1The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of ^aJosiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

The Great Day of the Lord

²“I will ¹utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³“I ^bwill consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the ²stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the ³land,”

Says the Lord.

⁴“I will stretch out My hand against Judah,

And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁴I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,

The names of the ^cidolatrous ⁵priests with the pagan priests—

⁵Those ^dwho worship the host of heaven on the housetops;

Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,

But who also swear ^eby ⁶Milcom;

^6fThose who have turned back from following the Lord,

And ^ghave not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”

^7hBe silent in the presence of the Lord God;

ⁱFor the day of the Lord is at hand,

For ^jthe Lord has prepared a sacrifice;

He has ⁷invited His guests.

⁸“And it shall be,

In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice,

That I will punish ^kthe princes and the king’s children,

And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.

⁹In the same day I will punish

All those who ^lleap over the threshold,

Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

¹⁰“And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord,

“The sound of a mournful cry from ^mthe Fish Gate,

A wailing from the Second Quarter,

And a loud crashing from the hills.

¹¹ⁿWail, you inhabitants of ⁸Maktesh!

For all the merchant people are cut down;

All those who handle money are cut off.

¹²“And it shall come to pass at that time

That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

And punish the men

Who are ^osettled ⁹in complacency,

^pWho say in their heart,

‘The Lord will not do good,

Nor will He do evil.’

¹³Therefore their goods shall become booty,

And their houses a desolation;

They shall build houses, but not inhabit them;

They shall plant vineyards, but ^qnot drink their wine.”

^14rThe great day of the Lord is near;

It is near and hastens quickly.

The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter;

There the mighty men shall cry out.

^15sThat day is a day of wrath,

A day of trouble and distress,

A day of devastation and desolation,

A day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

¹⁶A day of ^ttrumpet and alarm

Against the fortified cities

And against the high towers.

¹⁷“I will bring distress upon men,

And they shall ^uwalk like blind men,

Because they have sinned against the Lord;

Their blood shall be poured out like dust,

And their flesh like refuse.”

^18vNeither their silver nor their gold

Shall be able to deliver them

In the day of the Lord’s wrath;

But the whole land shall be devoured

By the fire of His jealousy,

For He will make speedy riddance

Of all those who dwell in the land.