Zephaniah 1

Zephaniah 2 (OEB)

Zephaniah 3

2

The Imminent Judgment upon the Nations



     Be ashamed within yourselves, be ashamed,
        
before you become as the drifting chaff,
        before the day of the Lord comes upon you,
        before the day of the Lord 's wrath comes upon you.
    
Seek the Lord all you meek of the earth,
        you who execute his law;
    Seek righteousness, seek meekness;
        perhaps you may be hidden in the day of the Lord 's wrath.


     For Gaza will be forsaken;
        Ashkelon a desolation;
    Ashdod - by noon will they rout her
        and Ekron be torn up!
    
Woe to the dwellers by the seashore;
        people of the Cherethites!
    The word of the Lord is against you,
        Canaan, land of the Philistines!

I will destroy you so that you will be without inhabitant, and you will become shepherds cots and folds for flocks. *** In the house of Ashkelon will they lie down at evening by the sea will they feed.

    
I have heard the taunts of Moab,
        and the revilings of the Ammonites,
    how they have taunted my people,
        and spoken boastfully concerning their border.
    
Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
        Moab will be like Sodom,
            and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
        a breeding-place of nettles, and saltpits,
            and a desolation, forever;
        the residue of my people will plunder them,
            and the remnant of my nation will inherit them.
    
10 This will they have for their pride,
        because they have taunted and spoken boastfully
        against the people of the Lord of hosts.
    
11 The Lord will terrify them;
        he will reduce all the gods of the earth;
    then all the peoples of the nations will worship him,
        each in their own land.


     12 You, also, Ethiopians,
        slain by his sword are you!
    
13 And I will stretch out my hand
        against the north and destroy Assyria;
    And I will make Nineveh a desolation,
        dry as the wilderness,
    
14 And herds will lie down in her,
        amidst every beast of the earth,
    Both desert owl and screech owl will lodge in its capitals.
    The owl will hoot in the window; the raven on the doorstep,
        for the city is destroyed.

15 This is the exultant city which sat secure. She who said to herself, I am and there is none else! How has she become a desolation! A lair of beasts! Every passerby hisses at her, shakes his hand.