Zephaniah 2

Zephaniah 2:2

Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff.

Before the command of God bring forth all this heavy judgment upon you; before the day of your captivity come upon you, which is coming upon you with such speed and violence, as the chaff is driven with a strong wind.

Zephaniah 2:3

Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.

Pray to the Lord, O all ye, that are well disposed and conscionable upon earth: ye, which have endeavoured to do that, which is just and right before him: go ye on still to approve yourselves to him, in your holy carriage and good affections: it may be, that God will be pleased to deliver you from the common judgment.

Zephaniah 2:4

For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desola-

G 2 tion: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. For ye shall see the hand of God, by way of forewarning, upon all those cities, that belong to the Philistines; upon Gaza, and Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and Ekron: all these shall be destroyed and rooted up openly before your eyes.

Zephaniah 2:5

Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines.

Woe to the inhabitants of the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; even to the Cherethites, that dwell there! the word of the Lord threatens speedy destruction against thee, O thou region of Canaan, which art possessed by the Philistines.

Zephaniah 2:6

And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.

And those sea coasts shall be left desolate and unpeopled: only there shall be some solitary cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks, along those shores.

Zephaniah 2:7

And the coast shall be for the remnant of the houses of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.

And, afterward, this whole tract shall be re-possessed by those of the house of Judah: they shall be settled in this country; and, after their captivity is past, as it were in the latter end of the day, they shall be the owners of the land and cities of the Philistines; for the Lord their God shall in mercy remember them, and return them from their captivity.

Zephaniah 2:11

For he will famish all the gods of the earth.

For he will destroy all the idols of the earth, and famish all those false deities, in withdrawing from them the offerings and gifts of their deluded followers.

Zephaniah 2:12

Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.

And not only Moab and Ammon, but ye Ethiopians also, shall be slain, at my appointment, by the sword of Nebuchadnezzar. II. 13, 14. And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. Even Nineveh, that mighty city, shall be so desolated by the sword of the Babylonian, as that flocks shall lie down in the midst of those, which were her streets: all the beasts of the countries round about may either pass or feed there: all the birds of solitariness and desolation shall take up their lodgings, ZEPRANIAH, CHAP. II. III. in the ruinous remainders of that goodly city; and the cedar ceilings thereof shall lie uncovered. So verse 15.