Zephaniah 2
2
A Plea for Repentance
1Shameless nation, come to your senses 2before you are driven away like chaff blown by the wind, before the burning anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the day when he shows his fury. 3Turn to the LORD, all you humble people of the land, who obey his commands. Do what is right, and humble yourselves before the LORD. Perhaps you will escape punishment on the day when the LORD shows his anger.
The Doom of the Nations round Israel
4 #
Is 14.29–31; Jer 47.1–7; Ezek 25.15–17; Joel 3.4–8; Amos 1.6–8; Zech 9.5–7 No one will be left in the city of Gaza. Ashkelon will be deserted. The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day,#2.4 in half a day; or by a surprise attack at noon. and the people of Ekron will be driven from their city. 5You Philistines are doomed, you people who live along the coast. The LORD has passed sentence on you. He will destroy you, and not one of you will be left. 6Your land by the sea will become open fields with shepherds' huts and sheep pens. 7The people of Judah who survive will occupy your land. They will pasture their flocks there and sleep in the houses of Ashkelon. The LORD their God will be with them and make them prosper again.
8 #
Is 15.1—16.14; 25.10–12; Jer 48.1—49.6; Ezek 21.28–32; 25.1–11; Amos 1.13–15 The LORD Almighty says, “I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insulting and taunting my people, and boasting that they would seize their land. 9#Gen 19.24As surely as I am the living LORD, the God of Israel, I swear that Moab and Ammon are going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become a place of salt pits and everlasting ruin, overgrown with weeds. Those of my people who survive will plunder them and take their land.”
10That is how the people of Moab and Ammon will be punished for their pride and arrogance and for insulting the people of the LORD Almighty. 11The LORD will terrify them. He will reduce the gods of the earth to nothing, and then every nation will worship him, each in its own land.
12 #
Is 18.1–7
The LORD will also put the people of Ethiopia#2.12 Ethiopia: See Word List. to death.
13 #
Is 10.5–34; 14.24–27; Nah 1.1—3.19 The LORD will use his power to destroy Assyria. He will make the city of Nineveh a deserted ruin, a waterless desert. 14It will be a place where flocks, herds, and animals of every kind will lie down. Owls will live among its ruins and hoot from the windows. Crows#2.14 Some ancient translations Crows; Hebrew Desolation. will caw on the doorsteps. The cedar wood of her buildings will be stripped away. 15That is what will happen to the city that is so proud of its own power and thinks it is safe. Its people think that their city is the greatest in the world. What a desolate place it will become, a place where wild animals will rest! Everyone who passes by will shrink back in horror.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Zephaniah 2
2
1Gather together and assemble yourselves, shameless nation,
2before the decision is made—the day vanishes like chaff#2.2 Heb uncertain—
before the burning anger of the LORD comes against you,
before the day of the LORD’s anger comes against you.
3Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land who practice his justice;
seek righteousness;
seek humility.
Maybe you will be hidden on the day of the LORD’s anger.
Oracles against foreign nations
4Gaza will certainly be abandoned;
and Ashkelon destroyed.
Ashdod will be driven out at noon;
Ekron will be uprooted.
5Doom, inhabitants of the seacoast,
nation of Cretans.
The LORD’s word is against you,
Canaan, land of the Philistines.
I will exterminate you, leaving no inhabitant.
6The seacoast will become pastureland,
with wells for shepherds and pens for the flocks.
7The coast will belong to the survivors from the house of Judah;
they will pasture beside the sea;#2.7 Or they will pasture by them.
in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening.
The LORD their God will visit them and restore their possessions.
8I have heard the taunting of Moab
and the defamation of the Ammonites;
they taunted my people
and enlarged their borders.
9Therefore, as I live—
says the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel—
Moab will become like Sodom
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah:
a plot of weeds, salt pits, and devastation forever.
The few remaining from my people will plunder them;
the rest of my nation will possess them.
10This will happen on account of their pride,
because they taunted and boasted over the people of the LORD of heavenly forces.
11The LORD will terrify them;
he will make all the gods of the earth disappear.
All the coastlands of the nations will bow down to the LORD,
each one in its own place.
12Moreover, you too, Cushites, will be pierced by my sword.
13He will stretch out his hand against the north
and will cause Assyria to perish.
Let him make Nineveh a desolation,
a desolate place like the wilderness.
14Flocks will lie down in its midst,
every living thing of the nation.
Moreover, the owl and the porcupine will spend the night on its columns.
A bird’s call will resound from the window.
Desolation will be on the sill,
for the cedar will be stripped bare.
15This is the jubilant city,
the one dwelling securely,
the one saying in her heart,
I, and no one else, will endure forever.
How she has become a desolation,
a resting place for the wild animals.
All those who pass through her hiss and shake their fist.
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