Judgment of Judah’s Enemies

• 2 Gather yourselves together! Now gather together,
  • 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.