Zephaniah 2

A Call to Seek the LORD

1 Gather yourselves together, yes gather, nation without shame,

2 before the decree takes effect and that day passes like chaff, before the LORD’s burning anger comes on you, before the day of the LORD’s anger comes on you.

3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. Maybe you will be hidden on the day of the LORD’s anger.

Judgment on Philistia

4 Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. Ashdod will be driven out at noon and Ekron uprooted.

5 Woe to you who live by the sea, people of the Cherethites. The word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. “I will destroy you until no one is left.”

6 The land by the sea will become pastures with wells for shepherds and pens for flocks.

7 That land will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah. They will find pasture there, and in the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon, because the LORD their God will care for them and restore their fortunes.

Judgment on Moab and Ammon

8 “I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, how they insulted My people and made threats against their land.

9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of armies, the God of Israel, “Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a place of weeds and salt pits, a permanent wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them, and the survivors of My nation will take possession of their land.”

10 This will happen to them because of their pride, because they mocked and made fun of the people of the LORD of armies.

11 The LORD will be terrifying to them when He destroys all the gods of the earth. Then all the distant coastlands of the nations will bow down to Him, each in their own land.

Judgment on Cush and Assyria

12 “You Cushites too will be slain by My sword.”

13 He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh completely desolate and dry like a desert.

14 Herds will lie down there, every kind of wild animal. Desert owls and screech owls will roost on her columns. Their calls will echo through the windows, rubble will fill the doorways, and the cedar beams will be exposed.

15 This is the carefree city that lived in security, saying in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” What a ruin she has become, a place for animals to lie down. Everyone who passes by hisses and shakes their fist.