Top of Page
Page Style
gather together, O shameful nation,
2 before the appointed time arrives
and that day passes like chaff,
before the fierce anger of the Lord overtakes you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath overtakes you.
3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth,
you who obey His commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
4 For Gaza will be abandoned,
and Ashkelon will become a ruin.
At midday Ashdod will be emptied,
and Ekron will be uprooted.
5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
O nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
O Canaan, land of the Philistines.
“I will destroy you,
and no one will be left.”
6 The land by the sea will become pastures,
with shelters for shepherds
and folds for flocks.
7The coastal lands will become the possession
of the remnant of the house of Judah;
there they will find pasture.
In the evening they will lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon,
for the Lord their God will intervene for them
and restore their fortunes.
8 “I have heard the taunts of Moab
and the insults of the Ammonites,
who have taunted My people
and make threats against their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,”
declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,
“Moab will become like Sodom,
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—
a place of weeds and salt pits,
a wasteland forever.
The remnant of My people will plunder them;
the survivors of My nation will inherit their land.”
10 This is what they will get in return for their pride,
because they have taunted and made arrogant threats
against the people of the Lord of Hosts.
11 The Lord will be terrifying and awesome to them
when He reduces to nothing all the gods of the earth.
Then all the peoples of the distant coastlands will worship Him,
each in his own place.
12 “You also, O Cushites,
will be slain by My sword.”
13 He will stretch out His hand against the north
and destroy Assyria;
He will make Ninevah a desolate ruin
and dry as the desert.
14 Herds will lie down there,
wild animals of every kind.
The desert owl and the screech owl
will roost on the capitals of her pillars.
Their calls will echo through the windows,
desolation will be on the thresholds,
and He will expose the timbers of the cedar work.
15 This is the exultant city
that lived securely.
She said in her heart,
“I am, and there is none besides me.”
What a desolation she has become,
a place for wild animals to lie down!
All who pass by her jeers
and shakes his fist.