Zephaniah 2

¹ Gather together, gather together, nations without shame,

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

³ Seek Yahweh, al 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 wil be abandoned and Ashkelon reduced to ruins; Ashdod wil be driven out in broad daylightand 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 shal subdue you, land of the Philistines, I shal destroy you til there are no inhabitantsleft;

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹² You Ethiopians too wil 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 wil nest round her cornices atnight; the owl wil hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down.

¹⁵ This is what the city wil 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 wil whistleand throw up his hands.