Zephaniah 2:1-11

1 Shameless nation, come to your senses
2 before you are driven away like chaff blown by the wind, before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day when he shows his fury.
3 Turn to the Lord, all you humble people of the land, who obey his commands. Do what is right, and humble yourselves before the Lord. Perhaps you will escape punishment on the day when the Lord shows his anger.
4 No one will be left in the city of Gaza. Ashkelon will be deserted. The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day, and the people of Ekron will be driven from their city. 1
5 You Philistines are doomed, you people who live along the coast. The Lord has passed sentence on you. He will destroy you, and not one of you will be left.
6 Your land by the sea will become open fields with shepherd's huts and sheep pens.
7 The people of Judah who survive will occupy your land. They will pasture their flocks there and sleep in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will be with them and make them prosper again.
8 The Lord Almighty says, "I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insulting and taunting my people, and boasting that they would seize their land. 2
9 As surely as I am the living Lord, the God of Israel, I swear that Moab and Ammon are going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become a place of salt pits and everlasting ruin, overgrown with weeds. Those of my people who survive will plunder them and take their land." 3
10 That is how the people of Moab and Ammon will be punished for their pride and arrogance and for insulting the people of the Lord Almighty.
11 The Lord will terrify them. He will reduce the gods of the earth to nothing, and then every nation will worship him, each in its own land.

Cross References 3

  • 1. 2.4-7Isaiah 14.29-31;Jeremiah 47.1-7;Ezekiel 25.15-17;Joel 3.4-8;Amos 1.6-8;Zechariah 9.5-7.
  • 2. 2.8-11 aIsaiah 15.1--16.14; 25.10-12;Jeremiah 48.1-47;Ezekiel 25.8-11;Amos 1.13-15; bJeremiah 49.1-6;Ezekiel 21.28-32; 25.1-7;Amos 1.13-15.
  • 3. 2.9Genesis 19.24.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. in half a day; [or] by a surprise attack at noontime.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.