Zephaniah 2
Good News Translation
A Plea for Repentance
2 Shameless nation, come to your senses 2 before you are driven away like chaff blown by the wind, before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day when he shows his fury. 3 Turn to the Lord, all you humble people of the land, who obey his commands. Do what is right, and humble yourselves before the Lord. Perhaps you will escape punishment on the day when the Lord shows his anger.
The Doom of the Nations around Israel
4 (A)No one will be left in the city of Gaza. Ashkelon will be deserted. The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day,[a] and the people of Ekron will be driven from their city. 5 You Philistines are doomed, you people who live along the coast. The Lord has passed sentence on you. He will destroy you, and not one of you will be left. 6 Your land by the sea will become open fields with shepherd's huts and sheep pens. 7 The people of Judah who survive will occupy your land. They will pasture their flocks there and sleep in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will be with them and make them prosper again.
8 (B)The Lord Almighty says, “I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insulting and taunting my people, and boasting that they would seize their land. 9 (C)As surely as I am the living Lord, the God of Israel, I swear that Moab and Ammon are going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become a place of salt pits and everlasting ruin, overgrown with weeds. Those of my people who survive will plunder them and take their land.”
10 That is how the people of Moab and Ammon will be punished for their pride and arrogance and for insulting the people of the Lord Almighty. 11 The Lord will terrify them. He will reduce the gods of the earth to nothing, and then every nation will worship him, each in its own land.
12 (D)The Lord will also put the people of Ethiopia[b] to death.
13 (E)The Lord will use his power to destroy Assyria. He will make the city of Nineveh a deserted ruin, a waterless desert. 14 It will be a place where flocks, herds, and animals of every kind will lie down. Owls will live among its ruins and hoot from the windows. Crows[c] will caw on the doorsteps. The cedar wood of her buildings will be stripped away. 15 That is what will happen to the city that is so proud of its own power and thinks it is safe. Its people think that their city is the greatest in the world. What a desolate place it will become, a place where wild animals will rest! Everyone who passes by will shrink back in horror.
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 2:4 in half a day; or by a surprise attack at noontime.
- Zephaniah 2:12 Hebrew Cush: Cush is the ancient name of the extensive territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. This region was called Ethiopia in Graeco-Roman times, and included within its borders most of modern Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
- Zephaniah 2:14 Some ancient translations Crows; Hebrew Desolation.
Zephaniah 2
English Standard Version
Judgment on Judah's Enemies
2 Gather together, yes, gather,
O (A)shameless nation,
2 (B)before the decree takes effect[a]
—before the day passes away (C)like chaff—
(D)before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the Lord.
3 (E)Seek the Lord, (F)all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;[b]
(G)seek righteousness; seek humility;
(H)perhaps (I)you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the Lord.
4 (J)For Gaza shall be deserted,
and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon,
and Ekron shall be uprooted.
5 Woe to (K)you inhabitants of the seacoast,
you nation of (L)the Cherethites!
(M)The word of the Lord is against you,
(N)O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
and I will destroy you (O)until no inhabitant is left.
6 (P)And you, O seacoast, (Q)shall be pastures,
with meadows[c] for shepherds
and folds for flocks.
7 (R)The seacoast shall become the possession
of (S)the remnant of the house of Judah,
(T)on which they shall graze,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God (U)will be mindful of them
and (V)restore their fortunes.
8 “I have heard (W)the taunts of Moab
and (X)the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
and made boasts (Y)against their territory.
9 Therefore, (Z)as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become (AA)like Sodom,
and the Ammonites (AB)like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10 This shall be their lot in return (AC)for their pride,
because they taunted and boasted
against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will be awesome against them;
(AD)for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and (AE)to him shall bow down,
each in its place,
all (AF)the lands of the nations.
12 (AG)You also, O Cushites,
shall be slain by my sword.
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north
(AH)and destroy Assyria,
and he (AI)will make Nineveh a desolation,
a dry waste like the desert.
14 (AJ)Herds shall lie down in her midst,
all kinds of beasts;[d]
(AK)even the owl and the hedgehog[e]
shall lodge in her capitals;
a voice shall hoot in the window;
devastation will be on the threshold;
for (AL)her cedar work will be laid bare.
15 This is the exultant city
(AM)that lived securely,
that said in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one else.”
What a desolation she has become,
(AN)a lair for wild beasts!
(AO)Everyone who passes by her
hisses and (AP)shakes his fist.
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 2:2 Hebrew gives birth
- Zephaniah 2:3 Or who carry out his judgment
- Zephaniah 2:6 Or caves
- Zephaniah 2:14 Hebrew beasts of every nation
- Zephaniah 2:14 The identity of the animals rendered owl and hedgehog is uncertain
西番雅书 2
Chinese New Version (Simplified)
劝及时悔改
2 无耻的国民哪！
你们要聚集，
要聚集起来。
2 趁命令还没有发出，
日子还没有像风前的糠秕一般吹过，
耶和华的烈怒还没有临到你们，
耶和华忿怒的日子还没有临到你们以前，
你们要聚集起来！
3 地上所有谦卑的人，
就是遵守耶和华典章的人哪！
你们要寻求耶和华，
你们要寻求公义，寻求谦卑。
在耶和华忿怒的日子，
你们或许得以隐藏起来。
审判非利士
4 因为迦萨必被拋弃，
亚实基伦必成荒场，
亚实突的居民必在晌午被赶走；
以革伦必连根拔起来。
5 住在沿海地带的人，
基列提的国民哪！你们有祸了。
这是耶和华攻击你们的话：
“非利士人之地迦南啊！
我必毁灭你，使你那里没有人居住。
6 沿海的地必成为草场、
牧人的洞穴、
羊群的圈栏。
7 这地必归给犹大家的余民；
他们要在那里放牧，
晚上他们躺卧在亚实基伦的房舍中；
因为耶和华他们的 神必眷顾他们，
使他们从被掳之地归回。”
审判摩押与亚扪
8 我听见了摩押人的辱骂之言，
听见了亚扪人的毁谤之语，
他们辱骂我的子民，
又自夸自大侵犯他们的境界。
9 因此，万军之耶和华
以色列的 神说：
“我指着我的永生起誓：
摩押人必要像所多玛，
亚扪人必定像蛾摩拉，
成为刺草和盐坑之所，
永远荒凉之地。
我余下的子民必掳掠他们，
我国中所余的要得着他们为业。”
10 由于他们的狂傲，这事就临到他们；因为他们自夸自大，辱骂万军之耶和华的子民。 11 对于他们，耶和华是可畏惧的，因为他要消灭地上一切神祇；那时，列国海岛上的居民，都各在自己的地方敬拜他。
审判古实与亚述
12 古实人哪！
你们也必被我的刀剑所杀。
13 耶和华必伸手攻击北方，
毁灭亚述，
使尼尼微变成荒场，
干旱像旷野。
14 群畜和各类的走兽必躺卧在其中；
鹈鹕和箭猪栖宿在柱顶上；
窗内有鸣叫的声音，
门槛上必有荒凉；
因为香柏木都要暴露出来。
15 这就是那欢乐安居之城，
她心里曾说：
“只有我，除我以外，再没有别的了。”
现在怎么竟成了荒场、
走兽躺卧之处呢！
凡从那里经过的，
都必舞手嗤笑。
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
Chinese New Version (CNV). Copyright © 1976, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2005 by Worldwide Bible Society.