Moff ZEP Chapter 2

◄ ZEP 2 ► ║ ═ ©

O shameless nation, huddle sy and cower,

ere you become like drifting chaff,

ere the Eternal’s blazing anger breaks on you,

ere the day of the Eternal’s anger breaks on you.

[[Seek the Eternal, all you humble folk,

who do his bidding,

seek to be honest, seek to be humble;

perhaps you may be hidden

on the day of the Eternal’s wrath.]]

For Gaza shall be deserted, Ashkelon desolate,

Ashdod stormed by noon, Ekron cut to pieces.

Woe betide the dwellers on the coast, the Cretan settlers,

for the Eternal’s decree is against you:

“I will destroy you, O land of the Philistines [[Canaan]],

till not one inhabitant is left,

till you are turned into huts for shepherds,

into folds for flocks,

that couch by night in the houses of Ashkelon,

and pasture beside Ekron

[[and the sea-coast shall belong to those left of Judaea,

for the Eternal their God will remember them and turn their fortunes]].”

[[I have heard the taunts of Moab

and the Ammonites reviling,

taunting my own people

and vaunting their gains of land.

As I live! the Eternal declares,

the God of Israel,

Moab shall be like a Sodom,

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,

naught but weeds and salt-pits,

desolate for ever;

those left of my people shall plunder them,

the survivors of my nation shall seize them.

So shall they be paid back for their pride,

for vaunting and taunting the people of the Lord of hosts.]]

And you too, Ethiopians,

you shall be slain by his sword. 13 And he will strike to the north

and destroy Assyria;

he will make Nineveh desolate,

dry as the desert;

cattle couch in her midst,

all manner of beasts,

bitterns and pelicans

roost on her pillars,

owls hoot in her windows,

ravens on her door-steps.

And this was the teeming city

that sat so secure,

that thought herself supreme, the only power!

What a ruin she lies, a lair for beasts!

Passers-by all hiss at her and shake their fists.

[[Grimly will the Eternal assail them all;

for he disables all gods of the earth,

till every pagan shore does homage to himself.]]

ZEP C1 C2 C3