Zep 2 | ABEn | STEP | Be gathered and bound together, O [ 2 nation 1 uninstructed]!

Zephaniah 2

CHAPTER 2 The Wrath of The LORD

1 Be gathered and bound together, O [²nation ¹uninstructed]! 2 before your becoming as a flower passing the day; before the coming upon you the wrath of the lord; before the coming upon you the day of the wrath of the rage of the lord. 3 Seek the lord all you humble ones of the earth! [²equity ¹Work], and [²righteousness ¹seek], and answer them accordingly! so that you should be sheltered in the day of the wrath of the lord.

Judgment against the Philistines

4 For Gaza will be for plundering, and Ashkelon for extinction, and Ashdod at midday shall be cast forth, and Ekron shall be rooted out. 5 Woe, the ones dwelling the measured out land of the sea -- sojourners of Cretans. The word of the lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you of your dwelling. 6 And Crete shall be a pasture of flocks, and a haven for sheep. 7 And [⁵will be ¹the ²measured out piece of land ³by the ⁴sea] for the remnant of the house of Judah; upon them they shall pasture in the houses of Ashkelon; in the afternoon they shall rest up from in front of the sons of Judah; for [³shall visit ⁴them ¹the lord ²their God]; and he shall return their captivity.

Judgment against Moab and Ammon

8 I heard the scorns of Moab, and the ill-treatment by the sons of Ammon, in which they berated my people, and magnified themselves over my borders. 9 On account of this, as I live, says the lord of the forces, the God of Israel, that Moab [²as ³Sodom ¹will be], and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah, and Damascus ceasing. And it will be as a heap of salt into the eon. And the remnants of my people shall plunder them, and the remnants of my nation shall inherit them. 10 This is to them for their insolence, because they berated and magnified themselves over the lord almighty. 11 The lord shall appear against them, and he shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth. And they shall do obeisance to him, each from his place -- all the islands of the nations.

Judgment against Ethiopia and Assyria

12 And you, O Ethiopians, [²the slain ³of my broadsword ¹are]. 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north. And he shall destroy the Assyrian, and he shall establish Nineveh for [²extinction ¹a waterless], as a wilderness. 14 And [²shall feed ³in ⁴the midst ⁵of her ¹flocks], and all the wild beasts of the earth, and chameleons; and hedgehogs [²in ³her fretwork ¹shall make a bed], and wild beasts to sound out loud in her ditches, and crows in her gatehouses. For [²was as the cedar ¹her height]. 15 This is the [²city ¹heedless], the one dwelling upon hope, who says in her heart, I am, and there is none after me any longer. O how it was for extinction, a pasture of wild beasts. Every one traveling through her shall whistle and shall shake his hands.