New Living Translation (NLT)
Zephaniah 1
16 a day of trumpet calls and battle cries. Down go the walled cities and the strongest battlements!
17 “Because you have sinned against the LORD, I will make you grope around like the blind. Your blood will be poured into the dust, and your bodies will lie rotting on the ground.”
18 Your silver and gold will not save you on that day of the LORD’s anger. For the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He will make a terrifying end of all the people on earth.
Zephaniah 2
1 Gather together—yes, gather together, you shameless nation.
2 Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the LORD falls and the terrible day of the LORD’s anger begins.
3 Seek the LORD, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the LORD will protect you— protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.
4 Gaza and Ashkelon will be abandoned, Ashdod and Ekron torn down.
5 And what sorrow awaits you Philistines who live along the coast and in the land of Canaan, for this judgment is against you, too! The LORD will destroy you until not one of you is left.
6 The Philistine coast will become a wilderness pasture, a place of shepherd camps and enclosures for sheep and goats.
7 The remnant of the tribe of Judah will pasture there. They will rest at night in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the LORD their God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.
8 “I have heard the taunts of the Moabites and the insults of the Ammonites, mocking my people and invading their borders.
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