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2
The Imminent Judgment upon the Nations
1 Be ashamed within yourselves, be ashamed,
2 before you become as the drifting chaff,
before the anger of the Lord comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord's wrath comes upon you.
3 Seek the Lord all you meek of the earth,
you who obey his law;
Seek righteousness, seek meekness;
perhaps you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's wrath.
4 For Gaza will be forsaken;
Ashkelon a desolation;
Ashdod - by noon will they rout her
and Ekron be torn up!
5 Woe to those who live by the sea coast,
people of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
Canaan, land of the Philistines!
I will destroy you so that you will be without inhabitants, 6 and you will become shepherds' cots and folds for flocks. 7 The sea coast will belong to the survivors of the house of Judah. They will pasture their flocks there. In the house of Ashkelon they will lie down at evening. The Lord their God will be with 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 spoken boastfully concerning their border.
9 Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Moab will be like Sodom,
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a breeding-place of nettles, and saltpits,
and a desolation, forever;
the residue of my people will plunder them,
and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.
10 This will they have for their pride,
because they have taunted and spoken boastfully
against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will terrify them;
he will reduce all the gods of the earth;
then all the peoples of the nations will worship him,
each in their own land.
12 You, also, Ethiopians,
slain by his sword are you!
13 And he will stretch out his hand
against the north and destroy Assyria;
And he will make Nineveh a desolation,
dry as the wilderness.
14 Herds will lie down in it,
every beast of the earth,
Desert owl and screech owl
will lodge in its capitals.
The owl will hoot in the window,
the raven on the doorstep,
all stripped bare of cedar.
15 This is the exultant city which sat secure. The city who said to herself, I am and there is none else! How has she become a desolation! A lair of beasts! Every passerby hisses at her, shakes their hand.

- Zephaniah
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