Zephaniah 2

1 Come together!

Yes, you people, come together and think.

You do not know how to be ashamed!


It will be like that when I punish you.


Before this time is past, look for me.


There will be a day when the LORD will be angry. Look for me, before that day.

Yes, look for the LORD, all you people who want to make him happy.

You have done what the LORD wants.

Continue to do what is good.

But do not think that you are great.

Perhaps you will find a safe place

on the day when the LORD is angry.

The LORD will destroy the Philistines



5 It will be very bad for you people called Cherethites, who live by the sea!

The LORD's message is against you.


You will all die. So nobody will live there.


There will be safe places for their sheep.


They will have food there.

They will lie down to sleep in Ashkelon city's houses.

The LORD, their God, will be with them.

He will stop their troubles.

The LORD will destroy the people of other countries

8 The LORD of all his armies says, ‘I have heard the cruel people in the countries called Moab and Ammon.


They have thought that they were greater than you.

They have come against you.’

9 The LORD Almighty,

the God of Israel, says,

‘You can be sure that I live.


It will be theirs to keep.

God will destroy Moab as he destroyed Sodom.

He will destroy Ammon as he destroyed Gomorrah.


Nobody will build anything there again.

The small number of my people that enemies have not killed will have Ammon's peoples' things and Moab's peoples' things.’

10 That will happen to all proud people.

The proud people said cruel words to God's people.

The cruel people thought that they were greater than the people of the LORD Almighty.

11 The LORD will make them afraid.

He will destroy all the false gods.




Other people will kill you with a big knife’, the LORD says.

13 The LORD will go against the north.

There, he will destroy the country called Assyria.

He will also destroy Nineveh city. That place will become only dry sand.

14 Sheep will lie down there.

All the wild animals of that place will live together there.


They will sing in the windows.

Bits of doors will lie on the ground.

The LORD will tear down all the things in the houses that they have made out of dear wood.


That city's people said in their minds,




