Zephaniah 2:4–15

Judgment against Philistia

⁴Gaza and Ashkelon will be abandoned,

Ashdod and Ekron torn down.

⁵And what sorrow awaits you Philistines

who live along the coast and in the land of Canaan,

for this judgment is against you, too!

The Lord will destroy you

until not one of you is left.

⁶The Philistine coast will become a wilderness pasture,

a place of shepherd camps

and enclosures for sheep and goats.

⁷The remnant of the tribe of Judah will pasture there.

They will rest at night in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon.

For the Lord their God will visit his people in kindness

and restore their prosperity again.

Judgment against Moab and Ammon

⁸“I have heard the taunts of the Moabites

and the insults of the Ammonites,

mocking my people

and invading their borders.

⁹Now, as surely as I live,”

says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel,

“Moab and Ammon will be destroyed—

destroyed as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Their land will become a place of stinging nettles,

salt pits, and eternal desolation.

The remnant of my people will plunder them

and take their land.”

¹⁰They will receive the wages of their pride,

for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

¹¹The Lord will terrify them

as he destroys all the gods in the land.

Then nations around the world will worship the Lord,

each in their own land.

Judgment against Ethiopia and Assyria

¹²“You Ethiopians will also be slaughtered

by my sword,” says the Lord.

¹³And the Lord will strike the lands of the north with his fist,

destroying the land of Assyria.

He will make its great capital, Nineveh, a desolate wasteland,

parched like a desert.

¹⁴The proud city will become a pasture for flocks and herds,

and all sorts of wild animals will settle there.

The desert owl and screech owl will roost on its ruined columns,

their calls echoing through the gaping windows.

Rubble will block all the doorways,

and the cedar paneling will be exposed to the weather.

¹⁵This is the boisterous city,

once so secure.

“I am the greatest!” it boasted.

“No other city can compare with me!”

But now, look how it has become an utter ruin,

a haven for wild animals.

Everyone passing by will laugh in derision

and shake a defiant fist.