⁷ Be silent before the Lord God!
    For the day of the Lord is at hand;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice,
    he has consecrated his guests.
⁸ And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
    and all who dress themselves in foreign attire.
⁹ On that day I will punish
    all who leap over the threshold,
who fill their master’s house
    with violence and fraud.

¹⁰ On that day, says the Lord,
    a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,
    a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹ The inhabitants of the Mortar wail,
    for all the traders have perished;
    all who weigh out silver are cut off.
¹² At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
    and I will punish the people
who rest complacently^[d] on their dregs,
    those who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
    nor will he do harm.”
¹³ Their wealth shall be plundered,
    and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
    they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
    they shall not drink wine from them.

¹⁷ I will bring such distress upon people
    that they shall walk like the blind;
    because they have sinned against the Lord,
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
    and their flesh like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold
    will be able to save them
    on the day of the Lord’s wrath;
in the fire of his passion
    the whole earth shall be consumed;
for a full, a terrible end
    he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

⁵ Ah, 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.
⁶ And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    meadows for shepherds
    and folds for flocks.
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.

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.
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.
¹⁰ This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they scoffed and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.
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.

¹² You also, O Ethiopians,^[f]
    shall be killed by my sword.

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.
¹⁴ Herds shall lie down in it,
    every wild animal;^[g]
the desert owl^[h] and the screech owl^[i]
    shall lodge on its capitals;
the owl^[j] shall hoot at the window,
    the raven^[k] croak on the threshold;
    for its cedar work will be laid bare.
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.

³ The officials within it
    are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing until the morning.
⁴ Its prophets are reckless,
    faithless persons;
its priests have profaned what is sacred,
    they have done violence to the law.
⁵ The Lord within it is righteous;
    he does no wrong.
Every morning he renders his judgment,
    each dawn without fail;
    but the unjust knows no shame.

⁶ I have cut off nations;
    their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
    so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
    without people, without inhabitants.
⁷ I said, “Surely the city^[l] will fear me,
    it will accept correction;
it will not lose sight^[m]
    of all that I have brought upon it.”
But they were the more eager
    to make all their deeds corrupt.

⁹ At that time I will change the speech of the peoples
    to a pure speech,
that all of them may call on the name of the Lord
    and serve him with one accord.
¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia^[n]
    my suppliants, my scattered ones,
    shall bring my offering.

¹¹ On that day you shall not be put to shame
    because of all the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
    your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
    in my holy mountain.
¹² For I will leave in the midst of you
    a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord—
¹³     the remnant of Israel;
they shall do no wrong
    and utter no lies,
nor shall a deceitful tongue
    be found in their mouths.
Then they will pasture and lie down,
    and no one shall make them afraid.

¹⁵ Despite all this the people did not repent,
    nor did they forsake their sins,
until they were carried off as plunder from their land,
    and were scattered over all the earth.
The people were left very few in number,
    but with a ruler from the house of David.
¹⁶ Some of them did what was right,
    but others sinned more and more.