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
1Collect yourselves and gather together, O nation without shame, 2before the decree bring forth, before the day pass away as chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah's anger come upon you. 3Seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land, who have performed his ordinance; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger.
4For Gazah shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon shall be a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. 5Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of Jehovah is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant; 6and the sea-coast shall be cave-dwellings for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 7And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for Jehovah their God#GodHebrew: Elohim shall visit them, and turn again their captivity.
8I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, wherewith they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border. 9Therefore, as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, the God#GodHebrew: Elohim of Israel, Moab shall certainly 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 shall spoil them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them. 10This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts. 11Jehovah will be terrible unto them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and all the isles of the nations shall worship him, every one from his place.
12Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be the slain of my sword. 13And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, a place of drought like the wilderness. 14And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the crowd of beasts; both the pelican and the bittern shall lodge in the chapiters thereof; a voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be on the thresholds: for he hath laid bare the cedar work. 15This is the rejoicing city that dwelt in security, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none else beside me: how is she become a desolation, a couching-place for beasts! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, shall wave his hand.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.