Zephaniah

1

¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah.
² I will utterly remove everything / From off the face of the earth, / Declares Jehovah.
³ I will remove man and beast; / I will remove the birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, / And the stumbling blocks with the wicked; / And I will cut off man / From the face of the earth, / Declares Jehovah.
⁴ And I will stretch out My hand against Judah / And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, / And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, / And the name of the idol priests with the priests,
⁵ And those who worship upon the housetops / The host of heaven, / And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah / And swear by Malcam,
⁶ And those who have been turned back from going after Jehovah / And have not sought Jehovah / And have not inquired of Him.
⁷ Be silent before the Lord Jehovah, / For the day of Jehovah is near; / For Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice; / He has consecrated those whom He has called.
⁸ And in the day of the sacrifice of Jehovah / I will punish the princes / And the sons of the king / And all who wear / The clothing of foreigners.
⁹ And in that day I will punish / All who leap over the threshold, / Who fill their master’s house / With violence and deceit.
¹⁰ And in that day, declares Jehovah, / There will be the sound of an outcry from the Fish Gate / And wailing from the second district / And a great crashing from the hills.
¹¹ Wail, O inhabitants of Maktesh, / For all the people of Canaan are destroyed, / All who are laden with silver are cut off.
¹² And at that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps, / And I will punish the men / Who have settled on their lees, / Who say in their heart, / Jehovah will not do good, / Nor will He do evil.
¹³ And their wealth will become plunder, / And their houses, a desolation. / Indeed they will build houses but not inhabit them, / And they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine from them.
¹⁴ The great day of Jehovah is near; / It is near and hastens greatly. / The sound of the day of Jehovah! / The mighty man bitterly cries there.
¹⁵ That day is a day of overflowing wrath, / A day of trouble and distress, / A day of waste and ruin, / A day of darkness and gloom, / A day of clouds and deep darkness,
¹⁶ A day of trumpet and alarm / Against the fortified cities / And against the high battlements.
¹⁷ And I will bring distress upon the men, / So that they walk about like the blind, / For they have sinned against Jehovah; / And their blood will be poured out like dust, / And their bowels like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold / Will be able to deliver them / In the day of the overflowing wrath of Jehovah; / But the whole land will be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, / For He will make an end, nothing other than sudden destruction, / Of all the inhabitants of the land.

2

¹ Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, / O nation that has no shame,
² Before the decree has effect, / (The day passes like chaff) / Before there comes upon you / The burning anger of Jehovah, / Before there comes upon you / The day of Jehovah’s anger.
³ Seek Jehovah, / All you meek of the earth, / Who have performed His judgments. / Seek righteousness; / Seek meekness; / Perhaps you will be hidden / In the day of Jehovah’s anger.
⁴ For Gaza will be a forsaken city, / And Ashkelon will become a desolation; / As for Ashdod, they will drive it out at noontime, / And Ekron will be rooted up.
⁵ Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, / O nation of Cherethites! / The word of Jehovah is against you, / O Canaan, O land of the Philistines: / I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitant.
⁶ And the seacoast will be pastures with shepherds’ caves / And folds for flocks.
⁷ And the area will be / For the remnant of the house of Judah; / They will feed their flocks upon them. / In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening, / For Jehovah their God will visit them / And turn again their captivity.
⁸ I have heard the reproaching of Moab / And the revilings of the children of Ammon, / By which they have reproached My people / And magnified themselves against their border.
⁹ Therefore as I live, / Declares Jehovah of hosts, / The God of Israel, / Moab will surely be like Sodom, / And the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, / A possession of scrubs / And salt pits / And a perpetual desolation; / The remnant of My people will spoil them, / And the residue of My nation will inherit them.
¹⁰ This will they have for their pride, for they reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts.
¹¹ Jehovah will be terrible to them, for He will make all the gods of the earth vanish, and all the coastlands of the nations will worship Him, each from his own place.
¹² You Cushites also / Will be slain by My sword.
¹³ And He will stretch out His hand against the north / And will destroy Assyria, / And will make Nineveh a desolation / And a desert, like the wilderness.
¹⁴ And herds will stretch out in the midst of her, / And animals of every kind; / Both the pelican and the porcupine / Will lodge in her capitals. / Their voice will sing in the windows; / Desolation is upon the threshold; / For He has laid the cedar work bare.
¹⁵ This is the jubilant city / That dwelt securely, / That said in her heart, I am, / And there is none besides me. / How she has become a desolation, / A place for animals to stretch out! / Everyone who passes by her will hiss / And wave his hand at her.

3

¹ Woe to the rebellious and defiled one, / To the oppressing city!
² She has not listened to the voice; / She has not taken the correction. / She has not trusted in Jehovah; / She has not drawn near to her God.
³ Her princes in the midst of her / Are roaring lions. / Her judges are wolves of the evening; / They have left nothing until the morning.
⁴ Her prophets are vainglorious; / They are men of treachery. / Her priests have defiled the sanctuary; / They have done violence to the law.
⁵ Jehovah is righteous in the midst of her; / He does no wrong; / Morning by morning He brings His justice to light; / He does not fail; but he who is wrong knows no shame.
⁶ I have cut off nations; / Their battlements are desolated; / I have made their streets a waste, / So that no one passes through; / Their cities are destroyed, / So that there is no one, / So that there is no inhabitant.
⁷ I said, Only fear Me; / Take the correction; / That her habitation might not be cut off, / According to all that I have appointed concerning her. / But they rose up early to corrupt / All their deeds.
⁸ Therefore wait on Me, declares Jehovah, / For the day when I rise up to the prey. / For My decision is to assemble the nations, / To gather kingdoms together, / That I may pour out upon them My wrath, / All My burning anger; / For in the fire of My jealousy / All the earth will be devoured.
⁹ For then I will change the language of the peoples / Into a pure language / That they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, / To serve Him with one accord.
¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Cush My suppliants, / The daughter of My dispersed, will bring My meal offering.
¹¹ In that day you will not be put to shame because of all your deeds, / By which you have transgressed against Me; / For then I will take away from your midst / Those who exult in your majesty, / And you will never again be haughty / On My holy mountain.
¹² And I will leave in the midst of you / An afflicted and poor people, / And they will take refuge in the name of Jehovah.
¹³ The remnant of Israel will not do wrong; / And they will not speak lies, / Nor will there be found in their mouth / A deceitful tongue; / For they will have pasture and lie down, / And there will be no one to frighten them.
¹⁴ Give a ringing shout, O daughter of Zion! / Shout in triumph, O Israel! / Rejoice and exult with all your heart, / O daughter of Jerusalem!
¹⁵ Jehovah has taken away your judgments; / He has turned aside your enemy. / The King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of you; / You will not see evil again.
¹⁶ In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, / Fear not, O Zion; / Let not your hands drop.
¹⁷ Jehovah your God in the midst of you / Is a mighty One who saves; / He will be jubilant over you with rejoicing; / He will rest in His love; / He will exult over you with a ringing shout.
¹⁸ I will gather those who mourn for the appointed assembly, / Who were of you. / The reproach was a burden upon them.
¹⁹ Indeed at that time / I will deal with all who afflict you; / And I will save that which is lame, / And that which has been driven away I will gather. / And I will make them a praise and a name / In every land where their shame had been.
²⁰ At that time I will bring you in, / And at that time I will gather you; / For I will cause you to be a name and a praise / Among all the peoples of the earth, / When I turn again your captivity before your eyes, / Says Jehovah.