Zephaniah 2:1-3:8

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.^(E)
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    meadows for shepherds,
    and folds for flocks.^(F)
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.^(G)

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.^(H)
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.^(I)
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they scoffed and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.^(J)
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.^(K)

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

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.^(M)
14 Herds shall lie down in it,
    every wild animal of the earth;^[c]
the desert owl^[d] and the screech owl^[e]
    shall lodge on its capitals;
the owl^[f] shall hoot at the window,
    the raven^[g] croak on the threshold,
    for its cedar work will be laid bare.^(N)
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.^(O)

³ The officials within it
    are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing until the morning.^(R)
4 Its prophets are reckless,
    faithless persons;
its priests have profaned what is sacred;
    they have done violence to the law.^(S)
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.^(T)

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.^(U)
7 I said, “Surely the city^[h] will fear me;
    it will accept correction;
it will not lose sight^[i]
    of all that I have brought upon it.”
But they were the more eager
    to make all their deeds corrupt.^(V)