⁵ Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,
    you nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
    O Canaan, land of the Philistines,
    and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.^(B)
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    meadows for shepherds,
    and folds for flocks.^(C)
7 The seacoast shall become the possession
    of the remnant of the house of Judah,
    on which they shall pasture,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
    they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God will be mindful of them
    and restore their fortunes.^(D)

⁸ I have heard the taunts of Moab
    and the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.^(E)
9 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
Moab shall become like Sodom
    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits
    and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.^(F)
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they scoffed and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.^(G)
11 The Lord will be terrible against them;
    he will shrivel all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down
    each in its place,
    all the coasts and islands of the nations.^(H)

¹² You also, O Cushites,
    shall be killed by my sword.^(I)

¹³ And he will stretch out his hand against the north
    and destroy Assyria,
and he will make Nineveh a desolation,
    a dry waste like the desert.^(J)
14 Herds shall lie down in it,
    every wild animal of the earth;^[a]
the desert owl^[b] and the screech owl^[c]
    shall lodge on its capitals;
the owl^[d] shall hoot at the window,
    the raven^[e] croak on the threshold,
    for its cedar work will be laid bare.^(K)
15 Is this the exultant city
    that lived secure,
that said to itself,
    “I am, and there is no one else”?
What a desolation it has become,
    a lair for wild animals!
Everyone who passes by it
    hisses and shakes the fist.^(L)

² Thus says the Lord:
See, waters are rising out of the north
    and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who live in it.
People shall cry out,
    and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.^(B)
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
parents do not turn back for children,
    so feeble are their hands,^(C)
4 because of the day that is coming
    to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
    every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.^(D)
5 Baldness has come upon Gaza;
    Ashkelon is silenced.
O remnant of Anakim!^[a]
    How long will you gash yourselves?^(E)
6 Ah, sword of the Lord!
    How long until you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
    rest and be still!^(F)
7 How can it^[b] be quiet,
    when the Lord has given it an order?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore—
    there he has appointed it.^(G)