Zephaniah 2:1-9 ▼

1 GATHER yourselves, bind yourselves together, O people without discipline;

2 Before you become like the chaff which is driven away, before the fierce anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger reaches you.

3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, execute justice; seek righteousness and meekness; perhaps you may find refuge in the day of the LORD'S anger.

4 For Gaza shall be deserted and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall carry captive Ashdod's people at the noon day, and Ekron shall be uprooted.

5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast and the people of Crete! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will even destroy you, that there shall be no inhabitant.

6 And the seacoast shall become pastures for sheep, and Crete a pasture for flocks of sheep.

7 And the seacoast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon; in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down in the evening; for the LORD their God shall visit them and bring back their captivity.

8 I have heard the reproach of Moab and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their border.

9 Therefore as I live, says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab shall become as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, for their plantations have been destroyed and their counsellors lost, and they have become a desolation for ever; the remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my people shall possess them.