Zephaniah - The Old Testament

¹ Gather together, gather together, nations without shame,

² before you are dispersed like chaff which disappears in a day; before Yahweh's burning anger overtakes you (before the Day of Yahweh's anger overtakes you).

³ Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the earth, who obey his commands. Seek uprightness, seek humility: you may perhaps find shelter on the Day of Yahweh's anger.

⁴ For Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon reduced to ruins; Ashdod will be driven out in broad daylight and Ekron uprooted.

⁵ Disaster to the members of the coastal league, to the nation of the Cherethites! This is the word of Yahweh against you: I shall subdue you, land of the Philistines, I shall destroy you till there are no inhabitants left;

⁶ and the coastal league will be reduced to pasture land, to grazing grounds for shepherds and folds for sheep;

⁷ and the league will belong to the remnant of the House of Judah; they will pasture their flocks there, at night they will rest in the houses of Ashkelon; for, when Yahweh their God has punished them, he will restore their fortunes.

⁸ I have heard the taunt of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, as they taunted my people and boasted of their own domains.

⁹ For this, as I live -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel -- Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah: a realm of nettles, a heap of salt, a desolation for ever. What is left of my people will plunder them, the survivors of my nation will take their heritage.

¹⁰ This will be the price of their pride for having taunted and boasted over the people of Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹¹ Yahweh will be fearsome to them, for he will scatter all the gods of the earth, and they will bow down to him, each from his own place -- all the islands of the nations.

¹² You Ethiopians too will be run through by my sword.

¹³ He will raise his hand against the north and bring Assyria down in ruins; he will make Nineveh a waste, as dry as a desert.

¹⁴ Flocks will rest inside there, so will wild animals; pelican and porcupine will nest round her cornices at night; the owl will hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down.

¹⁵ This is what the city will be like, once living happy and carefree and thinking to itself, 'I have no rival -- not I!' And what will it be now? A ruin, a lair for wild beasts to rest in, and everyone who passes by will whistle and throw up his hands.