Zephaniah 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

Seek Yahweh Before His Day of Anger

2Gather yourselves together, indeed, ^agather,O nation ^bwithout ¹shame,²Before the decree ¹takes effect—The day passes ^alike the chaff—Before the ^bburning anger of Yahweh comes upon you,Before the ^cday of Yahweh’s anger comes upon you.³^aSeek Yahweh,All you ^bhumble of the ¹earthWho have worked His justice;^cSeek righteousness, seek humility.Perhaps you will be ^dhiddenIn the day of Yahweh’s anger.⁴For ^aGaza will be ¹forsakenAnd Ashkelon a desolation;^bAshdod will be driven out at noon,And ^cEkron will be uprooted.⁵Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,The nation of the ¹^,^aCherethites!The word of Yahweh is ^bagainst you,O ^cCanaan, land of the Philistines;And I will ^dmake you perishSo that there will be ^eno inhabitant.⁶So the seacoast will be ^apastures,With ¹caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.⁷And the coast will beFor the ^aremnant of the house of Judah;They will ^bfeed upon it.In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down at evening;For Yahweh their God will ^ccare for themAnd ^drestore their fortune.⁸“I have heard the ^areproach of MoabAnd the ^brevilings of the sons of Ammon,With which they have reproached My peopleAnd ^cmagnified themselves against their territory.⁹“Therefore, as I live,” declares Yahweh of hosts,The God of Israel,“Surely ^aMoab will be like ^bSodomAnd the sons of ^cAmmon like ^dGomorrah—A place possessed by nettles and salt pits,And a perpetual desolation.The remnant of My people will ^eplunder them,And the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

¹⁰This they will have in return for their ^apride because they have ^breproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of hosts. ¹¹Yahweh will be ^afearsome to them, for He will ¹starve ^ball the gods of the earth; and all the ^ccoastlands of the nations will ^dbow down to Him, everyone from his own place.

¹²“You also, O ^aEthiopians, will be slain by My sword.”¹³And He will ^astretch out His hand against the northAnd cause ^bAssyria to perish,And He will make ^cNineveh a desolation,Parched like the wilderness.¹⁴Flocks will lie down in her midst,All the beasts of the nation;Both the ¹^,^apelican and the hedgehogWill lodge in ²the tops of her pillars;Their voice will sing in the window,Ruin will be on the threshold;For He has laid bare the cedar work.¹⁵This is the ^aexultant cityWhich ^binhabits securely,Who says in her heart,“^cI am, and there is no one besides me.”How she has become an object of ^dhorror,A resting place for beasts!^eEveryone who passes by her will hissAnd wave his hand in contempt.