An exhortation to repentance. The judgment of the Philistines, of the
Moabites, and the Ammonites; of the Ethiopians and the Assyrians.
2:1.Assemble yourselves together, be gathered together, O nation not
worthy to be loved:
2:2. Before the decree bring forth the day as dust passing away, before
the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the
Lord’s indignation come upon you.
2:3. Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, you that have wrought his
judgment: seek the just, seek the meek: if by any means you may be hid
in the day of the Lord’s indignation.
2:4. For Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be a desert, they
shall cast out Azotus at noonday, and Accaron shall be rooted up.
2:5. Woe to you that inhabit the sea coast, O nation of reprobates: the
word of the Lord upon you, O Chanaan, the land of the Philistines, and
I will destroy thee, so that there shall not be an inhabitant.
2:6. And the sea coast shall be the resting place of shepherds, and
folds for cattle:
2:7. And it shall be the portion of him that shall remain of the house
of Juda, there they shall feed: in the houses of Ascalon they shall
rest in the evening: because the Lord their God will visit them, and
bring back their captivity.
2:8. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the
children of Ammon, with which they reproached my people, and have
magnified themselves upon their borders.
2:9. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel,
Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha, the
dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even for ever: the
remnant of my people shall make a spoil of them, and the residue of my
nation shall possess them.
2:10. This shall befall them for their pride: because they have
blasphemed, and have been magnified against the people of the Lord of
hosts.
2:11. The Lord shall be terrible upon them, and shall consume all the
gods of the earth: and they shall adore him every man from his own
place, all the islands of the Gentiles.
2:12. You Ethiopians, also shall be slain with my sword.
2:13. And he will stretch out his hand upon the north, and will destroy
Assyria: and he will make the beautiful city a wilderness, and as a
place not passable, and as a desert.
The beautiful city, viz.... Ninive, which was destroyed soon after
this, viz., in the sixteenth year of the reign of Josias.
2:14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst thereof, all the beasts of
the nations: and the bittern and the urchin shall lodge in the
threshold thereof: the voice of the singing bird in the window, the
raven on the upper post, for I will consume her strength.
2:15. This is the glorious city that dwelt in security: that said in
her heart: I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a
desert, a place for beasts to lie down in? every one that passeth by
her shall hiss, and wag his hand.