Zephaniah 3:1-7

International Children’s Bible

Jerusalem Will Be Punished

3 How terrible it will be for Jerusalem that hurts its own people.
    It’s a wicked, stubborn city.
²Her people don’t listen.
    They can’t be taught to do right.
They don’t trust the Lord.
    They don’t worship their God.
³Their officers are like roaring lions.
    Their rulers are like hungry wolves that attack in the evening.
    In the morning nothing is left of those they attacked.
⁴Their prophets are proud.
    They cannot be trusted.
Their priests don’t respect holy things.
    They break God’s teachings.
⁵But the Lord is good, and he is there in that city.
    He does no wrong.
Every morning he governs the people fairly.
    Every day he can be trusted by his people.
    But evil people are not ashamed of the bad things they do.

⁶“I have destroyed other nations.
    Their towers have fallen.
I made their streets empty.
    No one goes there anymore.
Their cities are ruined.
    No one lives there anymore.
⁷I said, ‘Maybe now Jerusalem will respect me.
    Maybe now my people will let me teach them to do right.’
Then the place where they lived would not be destroyed.
    Then I would not have punished them.
They got up early in order to do evil.
    Everything they did was bad.