LEB ZEP Chapter 2

Judgment of Judah’s Enemies

• O nation having no shame!
• 2 Before the birth of the decree, the day flies away like chaff;
• before the fierce anger of Yahweh overtakes you;
  • before the day of the anger of Yahweh overtakes you.
  • 3 Seek Yahweh, all you afflicted of the land who have fulfilled his law;
• seek righteousness;
  • seek humility.
• Perhaps you will be concealed
  • on the day of the anger of Yahweh.
  • 4 For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon as a desolation.
• As for Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away,
  • and Ekron shall be uprooted.
  • 5 Woe to you, inhabitants of the region of the sea, people of the Kerethites!
• The word of Yahweh is against you,
  • O Canaan, land of the Philistines.
• I will destroy you until there is no inhabitant .[fn]
  • 6 And you, O region of the sea, shall become pastures and meadows for shepherds
  • and sheep pens for the flocks.
  • 7 And it shall become a region for the remnant of the house of Judah;
  • upon them they shall graze,
• and in the houses of Ashkelon
  • they shall lie down in the evening.
• For Yahweh their God shall be mindful of them,
  • and he will restore their fortunes.
  • 8 I have heard the reproaches of Moab and the scorning of the Ammonites ,[fn]
• with which they have taunted my nation
  • and made boasts against their territory.
  • 9 “Therefore, as I live”—a declaration of Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel—
• “Moab shall be as Sodom,
  • and the Ammonites[fn] like Gomorrah,
• a place of weeds and salt pits
  • and a desolation forever.
• The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
  • and the remainder of my nation shall possess them.”
  • 10 This shall be for them in place of their pride because they mocked and boasted
  • against the people of Yahweh of hosts.
  • 11 Yahweh will be awesome against them, for he will destroy all the gods of the earth
• and all the lands[fn] of the nations;
  • each in its place will bow down to him.
  • 12 You also, O Cushites, they shall be killed by my sword.
  • 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and he will destroy Assyria
• and will make Nineveh a desolation,
  • a dry wasteland like the desert.
  • 14 Herds shall lie down in her midst, every wild animal of a nation;
• even the desert owl and the screech owl
  • shall lodge on her capitals.
• A voice shall hoot in the window;
  • rubble[fn] on the threshold;
• for the cedar is laid bare.
  • 15 This is the city of rejoicing that lived securely;
• the one saying in her heart,
  • “ I am, and there is none besides me .”[fn]
• How she has become a desolation,
  • a lair for wild animals!
• Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.