Zephaniah Chapter 2    

 ¹ Gather yourselves together like stubble,

 yes, gather together like stubble, O nation without shame,

 

 ² before the decree becomes reality (the day passes on like the chaff)

 before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you,

 before the Day of Yahweh’s anger comes on you.

 

 ³ Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land

 who have kept his ordinances.

 Seek righteousness. Seek humility.

 It may be that you will be hidden

 on the Day of Yahweh’s anger.

 

 
⁴ For Gaza will be abandoned,

 and Ashkelon will become a desolation.

 They will drive out Ashdod at noonday,

 and Ekron will be uprooted.

 

 ⁵ Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,

 the nation of the Cherethites!

 The word of Yahweh is against you,

 O Canaan, land of the Philistines.

 I will destroy you, so that there will be no inhabitant left.

 

 ⁶ The seacoast will become pastures,

 with caves for shepherds and walled enclosures for flocks.

 

 ⁷ And the coastland will be

 for the remnant of the house of Judah.

 They will find pasture on it.

 In the houses of Ashkelon,

 they will lie down in the evening,

 because Yahweh their God will visit them

 and restore their fortunes.

 

 
⁸ “I have heard the reproach of Moab

 and the insults of the children of Ammon

 with which they have reproached my people

 and made boasts against their territory.

 

 ⁹ Therefore as I live,”

 says Yahweh of Armies,

 the God of Israel,

 “surely Moab will be as Sodom,

 and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah,

 a possession of nettles,

 and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation.

 The remnant of my people will plunder them,

 and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.”

 

 ¹⁰ This they will get in return for their pride,

 because they have taunted and boasted

 against the people of Yahweh of Armies.

 

 ¹¹ Yahweh will be terrifying to them,

 for he will starve all the gods of the earth.

 All the coastlands of the nations

 will bow down to Him,

 each one from his own place.

 

 
¹² You also, O Cushites—slain by my sword are they!

 

 
¹³ And he will stretch out his hand against the north

 and destroy Assyria.

 He will make Nineveh a desolation

 as dry as the wilderness.

 

 ¹⁴ And herds will lie down in the middle of her,

 as well as all the animals of the nations.

 Both the desert owl and the screech owl

 will lodge in the tops of her pillars.

 Their calls will echo through the windows.

 Devastation will be on the thresholds,

 for he will lay bare the cedar beams.

 

 ¹⁵ This is the exultant city

 that lived securely,

 that said in her heart,

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

 What a desolation she has become,

 a place for animals to lie down in!

 Everyone who passes by her

 will hiss and wave his hand in contempt.