AB - Zephaniah - 2

2:1  Be gathered and closely joined together, O unchastened nation;

2:2  before you become as the flower that passes away, before the anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the wrath of the Lord come upon you.

2:3  Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth; do judgment, and seek justice, and answer accordingly; that you may be hid in the day of the wrath of the Lord.

2:4  For Gaza shall be utterly forsaken, and Ashkelon shall be destroyed; and Azotus shall be cast forth at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up.

2:5  Woe to them that dwell on the border of the sea, neighbors of the Cretans! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines, and I will destroy you out of your dwelling place.

2:6  And Crete shall be a pasture of flocks, and a fold of sheep.

2:7  And the sea coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall pasture upon them in the houses of Ashkelon; they shall rest in the evening because of the children of Judah; for the Lord their God has visited them, and He will turn away their captivity.

2:8  I have heard the revilings of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, wherewith they have reviled My people, and magnified themselves against My coasts.

2:9  Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah; and Damascus shall be left as a heap of the threshing floor, and desolate forever: and the remnant of My people shall plunder them, and the remnant of My nations shall inherit them.

2:10  This is their punishment in return for their haughtiness, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the Lord Almighty.

2:11  The Lord shall appear against them, and shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth; and they shall worship Him everyone from his place, even all the islands of the nations.

2:12  You Ethiopians also are the slain of My sword.

2:13  And He shall stretch forth His hand against the north and destroy the Assyrian, and make Nineveh a dry wilderness, even as a desert.

2:14  And flocks, and all the wild beasts of the land, and chameleons shall feed in the midst thereof: and hedgehogs shall lodge in the ceilings thereof; and wild beasts shall cry in the breaches thereof, and ravens in her porches, whereas her loftiness was as a cedar.

2:15  (3:1) This is the scornful city that dwells securely, that says in her heart, I am, and there is no longer any to be after me: how has she become desolate, and a habitation of wild beasts! Everyone that passes through her shall hiss, and shake their hands in contempt.