Parallel Bible results for "zephaniah 2"

Zephaniah 2

New Living Translation NLT

1 Gather together—yes, gather together, you shameless nation.

2 Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the LORD falls and the terrible day of the LORD ’s anger begins.

3 Seek the LORD, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the LORD will protect you— protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.

4 Gaza and Ashkelon will be abandoned, Ashdod and Ekron torn down.

5 And what sorrow awaits you Philistines who live along the coast and in the land of Canaan, for this judgment is against you, too! The LORD will destroy you until not one of you is left.

6 The Philistine coast will become a wilderness pasture, a place of shepherd camps and enclosures for sheep and goats.

7 The remnant of the tribe of Judah will pasture there. They will rest at night in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the LORD their God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.

8 “I have heard the taunts of the Moabites and the insults of the Ammonites, mocking my people and invading their borders.

9 Now, as surely as I live,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed— destroyed as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah. Their land will become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them and take their land.”

10 They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

11 The LORD will terrify them as he destroys all the gods in the land. Then nations around the world will worship the LORD, each in their own land.

12 “You Ethiopians will also be slaughtered by my sword,” says the LORD .

13 And the LORD will strike the lands of the north with his fist, destroying the land of Assyria. He will make its great capital, Nineveh, a desolate wasteland, parched like a desert.

14 The proud city will become a pasture for flocks and herds, and all sorts of wild animals will settle there. The desert owl and screech owl will roost on its ruined columns, their calls echoing through the gaping windows. Rubble will block all the doorways, and the cedar paneling will be exposed to the weather.

15 This is the boisterous city, once so secure. “I am the greatest!” it boasted. “No other city can compare with me!” But now, look how it has become an utter ruin, a haven for wild animals. Everyone passing by will laugh in derision and shake a defiant fist.

The Message Bible MSG

1 So get yourselves together. Shape up! You're a nation without a clue about what it wants.

2 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 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 Gaza is scheduled for demolition, Ashdod will be cleaned out by high noon, Ekron pulled out by the roots.

5 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 lands of the seafarers will become pastureland, A country for shepherds and sheep.

7 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'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 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 is what they get for their bloated pride, their taunts and mockeries of the people of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

11 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 Also you Ethiopians, you too will die - I'll see to it."

13 Then God will reach into the north and destroy Assyria. He will waste Nineveh, leave her dry and treeless as a desert.

14 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 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.