Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame,
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So get yourselves together. Shape up! You're a nation without a clue about what it wants.
2 before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD comes on you, before the day of the LORD's anger comes on you.
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Do it before you're blown away like leaves in a windstorm, Before God's Judgment-anger sweeps down on you, Before God's Judgment Day wrath descends with full force.
3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger.
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Seek God, all you quietly disciplined people who live by God's justice. Seek God's right ways. Seek a quiet and disciplined life. Perhaps you'll be hidden on the Day of God's anger. All Earth-Made Gods Will Blow Away
4 For `Aza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and `Ekron will be rooted up.
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Gaza is scheduled for demolition, Ashdod will be cleaned out by high noon, Ekron pulled out by the roots.
5 Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Kereti! The word of the LORD is against you, Kana`an, the land of the Pelishtim. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant.
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Doom to the seaside people, the seafaring people from Crete! The Word of God is bad news for you who settled Canaan, the Philistine country: "You're slated for destruction - no survivors!"
6 The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.
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The lands of the seafarers will become pastureland, A country for shepherds and sheep.
7 The coast will be for the remnant of the house of Yehudah. They will find pasture. In the houses of Ashkelon, they will lie down in the evening, for the LORD, their God, will visit them, and restore them.
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What's left of the family of Judah will get it. Day after day they'll pasture by the sea, and go home in the evening to Ashkelon to sleep. Their very own God will look out for them. He'll make things as good as before.
8 I have heard the reproach of Mo'av, and the insults of the children of `Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
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"I've heard the crude taunts of Moab, the mockeries flung by Ammon, The cruel talk they've used to put down my people, their self-important strutting along Israel's borders.
9 Therefore as I live, says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, surely Mo'av will be as Sedom, and the children of `Ammon as `Amorah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.
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herefore, as sure as I am the living God," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's personal God, "Moab will become a ruin like Sodom, Ammon a ghost town like Gomorrah, One a field of rocks, the other a sterile salt flat, a moonscape forever. What's left of my people will finish them off, will pick them clean and take over.
10 This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of Hosts.
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This is what they get for their bloated pride, their taunts and mockeries of the people of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
11 The LORD will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.
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God will be seen as truly terrible - a Holy Terror. All earth-made gods will shrivel up and blow away; And everyone, wherever they are, far or near, will fall to the ground and worship him.
12 You Kushi also, you will be killed by my sword.
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Also you Ethiopians, you too will die - I'll see to it."
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Ashshur, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness.
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Then God will reach into the north and destroy Assyria. He will waste Nineveh, leave her dry and treeless as a desert.
14 Herds will lie down in the midst of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the ka`at and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar beams.
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The ghost town of a city, the haunt of wild animals, Nineveh will be home to raccoons and coyotes - they'll bed down in its ruins. Owls will hoot in the windows, ravens will croak in the doorways - all that fancy woodwork now a perch for birds.
15 This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is none besides me." How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.
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Can this be the famous Fun City that had it made, That boasted, "I'm the Number-One City! I'm King of the Mountain!" So why is the place deserted, a lair for wild animals? Passersby hardly give it a look; they dismiss it with a gesture.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.