Zephaniah 2
2
God Asks People to Change
1Gather together,
you unwanted people.
2Do it before it’s too late.
Do it before you are blown away like chaff.
Do it before the Lord’s terrible anger reaches you.
Do it before the day of the Lord’s anger comes to you.
3All you who are not proud, come to the Lord.
You who obey his laws, come to him.
Do what is right. Learn to be humble.
Maybe you will escape
on the day the Lord shows his anger.
Philistia Will Be Punished
4No one will be left in the city of Gaza.
The city of Ashkelon will be destroyed.
Ashdod will be empty by noon.
And the people of Ekron will be chased away.
5How terrible it will be for you who live by the Mediterranean Sea,
you Philistines!
This message from the Lord is for you,
people of Canaan, land of the Philistines.
“I will destroy you.
No one will be left.”
6You live in the land by the Mediterranean Sea.
It will be a place for shepherds and sheep.
7Your land will belong to the descendants of Judah who are left alive.
There they will let their sheep eat grass.
At night they will sleep
in the houses of Ashkelon.
The Lord their God will come to be with them.
He will give them back their riches.
Moab and Ammon Will Be Punished
8“I heard the country of Moab insult my people.
The country of Ammon threatened to take their land.”
9So the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says,
“As surely as I live,
Moab will be destroyed like Sodom.
Ammon will be destroyed like Gomorrah.# Two cities God destroyed because the people were so evil.
Their land will be covered with weeds and salt.
It will be destroyed forever.
Those of my people who are left alive will take whatever they want from them.
Those who are left from my nation will take their land.”
10This is what Moab and Ammon get for being proud.
This will happen because they insulted and made fun of the people of the Lord of heaven’s armies.
11Those people will be afraid of the Lord.
He will destroy all the gods of the earth.
Then those people in faraway places
will worship the Lord in their own countries.
Cush and Assyria Will Be Destroyed
12“You Cushites also
will be killed by my sword.”
13Then the Lord will turn against the north
and punish Assyria.
He will destroy Nineveh.
It will be dry like a desert.
14Sheep and goats will lie down there.
Wild animals will live there.
The owls and crows will sit
on the stone pillars that are left standing.
Their calls will be heard through the windows.
Trash will be in the doorways.
The wooden boards of the buildings will be gone.
15This is the happy and safe city.
It thinks there is no one else as strong as it is.
But that city will be destroyed.
Only animals will stay there.
Those who pass by will make fun
and shake their fists.
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Zephaniah 2: ICB
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Tz'fanyah (Zep) 2
2
1Gather together, gather yourselves,
nation devoid of shame;
2before the decree takes effect,
and the day comes when one passes like chaff;
before Adonai’s fierce anger
comes on you,
before the day of Adonai’s anger
comes on you.
3Seek Adonai, all you humble in the land,
you who exercise his justice;
seek righteousness, seek humility —
you might be hidden
on the day of Adonai’s anger.
4For ‘Azah will be abandoned,
Ashkelon will be desolate,
they will evacuate Ashdod at noon,
and ‘Ekron will be uprooted.
5Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
the nation of the K’reti!
The word of Adonai is against you,
Kena‘an, land of the P’lishtim:
“I will destroy you; no one will be left.”
6The seacoast will be reduced to pastures,
meadows for shepherds, pens for sheep;
7and the coast will belong to the remnant
of the house of Y’hudah.
They will pasture their flocks there
and in the evening lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon.
For Adonai their God will remember them
and restore their fortunes.
8“I have heard the insults of Mo’av
and the taunts of the people of ‘Amon,
how they reviled my people
and boasted of expanding their territory.
9Therefore, as I live,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the God of Isra’el,
“Mo’av will become like S’dom
and the people of ‘Amon like ‘Amora,
a land covered with nettles and salt pits,
desolate forever.
The remnant of my people will plunder them,
the survivors in my nation will inherit them.”
10This is what they will earn for their pride,
for having reviled and boasted against
the people of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
11Adonai will be fearsome against them,
for he will make all the earth’s gods waste away.
Then all the coasts and islands of the nations
will worship him, each from its place.
12“You too, Ethiopians,
will be put to death by my sword.”
13He will stretch out his hand against the north;
he will destroy Ashur;
he will make Ninveh desolate,
as dry as the desert.
14Herds will lie down in it,
and all kinds of wild animals too —
jackdaws and owls will roost on her columns,
voices screeching in the windows,
desolation on the doorsteps,
for its cedarwork is stripped bare.
15This is the city, once so joyful,
whose people felt themselves secure,
who used to say to herself,
“I am [the greatest]! I have no rival.”
What a ruin she has become —
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone passing by her
hisses and shakes his fist!
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