A Call to Repentance
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
you shameless nation,
2 before the appointed time
when the day passes like chaff,
before the fury of the Lord comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s anger overtakes you.
3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who have kept his ordinances.
Seek righteousness. Seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
The Judgment on the Philistines
4 For Gaza will be forsaken
and Ashkelon in ruins.
They will drive out Ashdod at noonday,
and Ekron will be rooted up.
5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
the nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
Canaan, the land of the Philistines.
I will destroy you,
so that there will be no inhabitant.
6 The seacoast will be pastures,
with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.
7 The coast will be for the remnant
of the house of Judah.
They will find pasture.
In the houses of Ashkelon,
they will lie down in the evening,
for the Lord, their God, will visit them
and restore them.
The Judgment on Moab and Ammon
8 I have heard the reproach of Moab
and the insults of the Ammonites,
with which they have taunted my people
and arrogantly threatened them at their border.
9 Therefore as I live,
says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,
surely Moab will be like Sodom
and the descendants of Ammon like Gomorrah,
a place of thorny plants and salt pits
and an everlasting wasteland.
The remnant of my people will plunder them,
and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.
10 This they will have for their pride,
for taunting and scoffing at the people of the Lord of Hosts.
11 The Lord will be terrifying to them,
for he will starve all the gods of the land.
Men will worship him,
from every nation and every coast,
each from his own land.
The Judgment on Ethiopia and Assyria
12 You Cushites also,
you will be killed by my sword.
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north,
destroy Assyria and will leave Nineveh in ruins,
as dry as the wilderness.
14 Herds will lie down in the midst of her,
all the animals of the nations.
Both the desert owl and the screech owl
will nest in its pillars.
Their calls will echo through the windows.
The entryways will be laid waste,
for he has laid bare the cedar beams.
15 This is the joyous city
that lived carelessly,
that said in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
How she has been devastated,
a place for animals to lie down in!
Everyone who passes by her will scoff
and shake their fists.