CHAPTER 2

                 ¹Gather yourselves, O gather,

                     nation undesired,

                 ²before the decree is born—

                     the day slips by like chaff—

                 before it comes upon you,

                     the day of the LORD’s fury.

                 ³Seek the LORD,

                     all you humble of the land

                         who have fulfilled His law.

                 Seek justice, seek to be humble.

                     Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s fury.

                 ⁴For Gaza shall be abandoned

                     and Ashkelon a desolation.

                 Ashdod shall be banished at noon,

                     and Ekron be uprooted.

                 ⁵Woe, you who dwell in the coastal region,

                     nation of Cherithites.

                         The word of the LORD is against you.

                 Canaan, land of the Philistines,

                     I will destroy you with none dwelling there.

                 ⁶And the coastal region shall become

                     meadows for shepherd’s feasts and sheep pens.

                 ⁷And it shall become a region

                     for the remnant of the house of Judah.

                 On these they shall graze their flocks,

                     in the houses of Ashkelon at evening they shall bed down,

                 for the LORD their God shall single them out

                     and restore their fortunes.

                 ⁸I have heard the insult of Moab

                     and the jibes of the Ammonites,

                 who insulted My people

                     and gloated over their lands.

                 ⁹Therefore, as I live, said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel:

                     Moab shall be like Sodom

                         and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—

                 nettle growth and salt mine

                     and a desolation for all time.

                 The remnant of My people shall despoil them,

                     and the remains of the nation inherit them.

¹⁰This comes to them for their pride because they insulted and gloated over the people of the LORD of Armies. ¹¹Fearsome is the LORD over you, for He holds sway over all the gods of the earth, and all the coastlands of the nations shall bow to Him, each man in his place.

                 ¹²You, too, Cushites,

                     are slain by My sword.

                 ¹³And He shall reach out His hand in the north

                     and destroy Assyria

                 and make Nineveh a desolation,

                     parched land like the desert.

                 ¹⁴And flocks shall bed down in her midst,

                     all the beasts of the nations.

                 Both jackdaw and owl

                     on her capitals shall roost.

                 The screech owl shall hoot in the window,

                     the raven on the threshold,

                         for the cedarwood is laid bare.

                 ¹⁵This the merry city,

                     dwelling secure,

                 saying in her heart,

                     “I and none besides me,”

                 how has she become a desolation,

                     a bedding-down place for beasts!

                 All who pass by her shall hiss,

                     wag a mocking hand.