Zephaniah 1

New American Standard Bible

Day of Judgment on Judah

1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of ^(A)Josiah son of ^(B)Amon, king of Judah:

²“I will completely ^(C)remove all things
From the face of the ^[a]earth,” declares the Lord.
³“I will remove ^(D)human and animal life;
I will remove the ^(E)birds of the sky
And the fish of the sea,
And the ^[b]^(F)ruins along with the wicked;
And I will eliminate mankind from the face of the ^[c]earth,” declares the Lord.
⁴“So I will ^(G)stretch out My hand against Judah
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And I will ^(H)eliminate the remnant of Baal from this place,
And the names of the ^(I)idolatrous priests along with the other priests.
⁵And those who bow down on the ^(J)housetops to the heavenly ^[d]lights,
And those who bow down and ^(K)swear to the Lord, but also swear by ^[e]^(L)Milcom,
⁶And those who have ^(M)turned back from following the Lord,
And those who have ^(N)not sought the Lord nor inquired of Him.”

⁷^[f]^(O)Be silent before the Lord ^[g]God!
For the ^(P)day of the Lord is near,
Because the Lord has prepared a ^(Q)sacrifice,
He has ^(R)consecrated His guests.
⁸“Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
That I will ^(S)punish the princes, the king’s sons,
And all who clothe themselves with ^(T)foreign garments.
⁹And on that day I will punish all who leap on the temple threshold,
Who fill the house of their ^[h]lord with ^(U)violence and deceit.
¹⁰And on that day,” declares the Lord,
“There will be the sound of a cry from the ^(V)Fish Gate,
Wailing from the ^[i]^(W)Second Quarter,
And a loud crash from the ^(X)hills.
¹¹Wail, you inhabitants of the ^[j]Mortar,
Because all the ^[k]people of ^(Y)Canaan will be destroyed;
All who weigh out ^(Z)silver will be eliminated.
¹²And it will come about at that time
That I will ^(AA)search Jerusalem with lamps,
And I will punish the people
Who are ^[l]^(AB)stagnant in spirit,
Who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will ^(AC)not do good nor harm!’
¹³Their wealth will become ^(AD)plunder,
And their houses desolate;
Yes, ^(AE)they will build houses but not inhabit them,
And plant vineyards but not drink their wine.”

¹⁴The ^(AF)great ^(AG)day of the Lord is near,
Near and coming very quickly;
Listen, the day of the Lord!
^[m]In it the warrior ^(AH)cries out bitterly.
¹⁵That day is a day of anger,
A day of ^(AI)trouble and distress,
A day of destruction and desolation,
A day of ^(AJ)darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶A day of ^(AK)trumpet and battle cry
Against the ^(AL)fortified cities
And the high corner towers.
¹⁷I will bring ^(AM)distress on mankind
So that they will walk ^(AN)like those who are blind,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their ^(AO)blood will be poured out like dust,
And their ^(AP)flesh like dung.
¹⁸Neither their ^(AQ)silver nor their gold
Will be able to save them
On the day of the Lord’s anger;
And ^(AR)all the earth will be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will ^(AS)make a complete end,
Indeed a horrifying one,
Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Footnotes

Zephaniah 1:2 Lit ground
Zephaniah 1:3 Or stumbling blocks
Zephaniah 1:3 Lit ground
Zephaniah 1:5 Lit host; i.e., sun, stars, etc.
Zephaniah 1:5 Or their king; MT Malcam, prob. a variant spelling of Milcom, the Ammonite god
Zephaniah 1:7 Lit Hush
Zephaniah 1:7 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Zephaniah 1:9 Or Lord
Zephaniah 1:10 I.e., a district of Jerusalem
Zephaniah 1:11 I.e., a district of Jerusalem
Zephaniah 1:11 Or merchant people will
Zephaniah 1:12 Lit thickening on their dregs
Zephaniah 1:14 Lit There

2 Chronicles 33

New American Standard Bible

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah in Judah

33 ^(A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ²^(B)He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ³For ^(C)he rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had torn down; ^(D)he also set up altars for the Baals and made ^[a]Asherim, and he worshiped all the heavenly ^[b]lights and served them. ⁴^(E)He built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, “My name shall be ^(F)in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵He built altars for all the heavenly ^[c]lights in ^(G)the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. ⁶^(H)He also made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and ^(I)dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. ⁷Then he put ^(J)the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “^(K)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; ⁸and I will not remove the foot of Israel again from the land ^(L)which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will take care to do everything that I have commanded them according to all the Law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.” ⁹So Manasseh encouraged Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

Manasseh’s Idolatry Rebuked

¹⁰So the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but ^(M)they paid no attention. ¹¹^(N)Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, ^(O)bound him with bronze chains, and led him to Babylon. ¹²When ^(P)he was in distress, he appeased the Lord his God and ^(Q)humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³When he prayed to Him, ^(R)He was moved by him and heard his pleading, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh ^(S)knew that the Lord alone is God.

¹⁴Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of ^(T)Gihon, in the valley, up to the entrance of the ^(U)Fish Gate; and he encircled the ^(V)Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵He also ^(W)removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. ¹⁶He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed ^(X)peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁷However, ^(Y)the people still sacrificed on the high places, although only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and ^(Z)his prayer to his God, and the words of ^(AA)the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of ^(AB)Israel. ¹⁹His prayer also and ^(AC)how God was moved by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and ^(AD)the sites on which he built high places and erected the ^[d]Asherim and the carved images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the records of ^[e]Hozai. ²⁰So Manasseh ^[f]lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And his son Amon became king in his place.

Amon Becomes King in Judah

²¹^(AE)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. ²²He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh ^(AF)had done, and Amon sacrificed to all ^(AG)the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. ²³Furthermore, he did not humble himself before the Lord ^(AH)as his father Manasseh had ^[g]done, but Amon multiplied his guilt. ²⁴Finally, ^(AI)his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house. ²⁵But the people of the land ^[h]killed all the conspirators against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.