Zephaniah 2
1ASSEMBLE and make joint supplication, O unimproved nation, before you become like a flitting flower—
2before the wrath of the Lord come upon you—before the day of the fierce anger of the Lord reach you.
3Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the land; exercise judgment and seek righteousness, and live answerably; that you may be sheltered in the day of the anger of the Lord.
4For Gaza shall be plundered and Askalon shall be a waste; and Azotus shall be driven out at noonday, and Akkaron shall be rooted out.
5Alas for them who inhabit the seacoast—the emigrants from Crete! a word of the Lord is against you in Chanaan, the land of the Philistines, and I will destroy you from your habitations.
6And Crete shall be a pasture for flocks and a fold for sheep;
7and the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Juda. They shall feed upon them. In the houses of Askalon they will lie down in the evening for fear of the children of Juda. Because the Lord their God hath visited them; therefore He will bring back their captivity.
8I have heard the revilings of Moab and the buffets of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves against My borders:
9therefore as I live, saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall be like Sodom, and the children of Ammon like Gomorra; and Damascus shall be left like the heap of a winnowing floor, and shall be desolate forever, that the remnant of My people may spoil them: and the remains of My nation shall inherit them.
10This they shall have for their haughtiness, and their reproaches and for magnifying themselves against the Lord Almighty.
11The Lord will display Himself illustriously against them, and will root out all the gods of the nations of the earth, and all the isles of the nations shall worship Him, each one from his place—
12even you Ethiopians are the victims of My sword.
13And He will stretch forth His hand against the north, and destroy the Assyrian and make Ninive a desolation—dry as a desert,
14and in the midst of it flocks shall feed and all the wild beasts of the land. In its stalls the chameleons and porcupines shall make their beds; and wild beasts shall utter their cries in its vaults, and ravens in its gates; for a cedar is the only relict of it.
15This is the scornful city which dwelleth securely, which saith in her heart, I am, and there is none besides me. How it is become a desolation, the haunt of wild beasts! Everyone who passeth through it will express his pity and shake his hands.