A Call to Repentance
1Gather yourselves together;
gather together, undesirable2:1 Or shameless nation,
and the day passes like chaff,
before the burning of the Lord’s anger2:2 Nm 25:4; 32:14; Jr 4:8; 12:13; 25:37; 30:24; 51:45 overtakes you,
before the day of the Lord’s anger overtakes you.2:2 Lm 2:22
who carry out what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
Judgment against the Nations
4For Gaza will be abandoned,
and Ashkelon will become a ruin.
Ashdod will be driven out at noon,
5Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,
nation of the Cherethites!2:5 = Sea Peoples2:5 Ezk 25:16
Canaan, land of the Philistines:
I will destroy you until there is no one left.2:5 Is 5:9; 6:11; Jr 4:7; 26:9; 33:10; 34:22; 44:22; 46:19; 48:9; Zph 3:6
6The seacoast will become pasturelands
with caves for shepherds and pens for sheep.
7The coastland will belong
to the remnant of the house of Judah;
they will find pasture there.
They will lie down in the evening
among the houses of Ashkelon,
for the Lord their God will return to them
and the insults of the Ammonites,2:8 Am 1:13
who have taunted my people
and threatened their territory.
9Therefore, as I live —
this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel —
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah:2:9 Gn 19:24–25
a place overgrown with weeds,
a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland.
The remnant of my people will plunder them;
the remainder of my nation will dispossess them.
10This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly2:10 Jr 48:42
against the people of the Lord of Armies.
11The Lord will be terrifying to them
when he starves all the gods of the earth.
Then all the distant coasts and islands of the nations
will bow in worship to him,
each in its own place.
13He will also stretch out his hand against the north
and destroy Assyria;
dry as the desert.
14Herds will lie down in the middle of it,
every kind of wild animal.2:14 Lit every wild animal of a nation
Both eagle owls2:14 Or the pelicans and herons2:14 Or the hedgehogs
will roost in the capitals of its pillars.
Their calls will sound2:14 Lit sing from the window,
but devastation2:14 LXX, Vg read ravens will be on the threshold,
for he will expose the cedar work.2:14 Hb obscure
that lives in security,
that says to herself:
I exist, and there is no one else.
What a desolation she has become,
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her
scoffs2:15 Or hisses and shakes his fist.
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