2:1 COLLECT YOUR thoughts, yes, unbend yourselves [in submission and see if there is no sense of shame and no consciousness of sin left in you], O shameless nation [not desirous or desired]! |
2:2 [The time for repentance is speeding by like chaff whirled before the wind!] Therefore consider, before God's decree brings forth [the curse upon you], before the time [to repent] is gone like the drifting chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you--yes, before the day of the wrath of the Lord comes upon you! |
2:3 Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will {and} have kept His commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. |
2:4 For [hear the fate of the Philistines:] Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; the people of Ashdod shall be driven out at noonday and Ekron shall be uprooted. |
2:5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites [in Philistia]! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. |
2:6 And the seacoast shall be pastures, with [deserted] dwelling places {and} caves for shepherds and folds for flocks. |
2:7 The seacoast shall belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall pasture their flocks upon it; in the houses of [deserted Philistine] Ashkelon shall they of Judah lie down in the evening. For the Lord their [Judah's] God shall visit them [for their relief] and restore them from their captivity. |
2:8 I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites by which they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves {and} made boasts against their territory. |
2:9 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles {and} wild vetches and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people shall make a prey of them and what is left of My nation shall possess them. |
2:10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have taunted and boasted against the people of the Lord of hosts. |
2:11 The Lord will be terrible to them, for He will make lean {and} famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles {and} coastlands of the nations. |
2:12 You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by My sword. |
2:13 And [the Lord] will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation, dry as the desert. |
2:14 Herds shall lie down in the midst of [Nineveh], all the [wild] beasts of the nations {and} of every kind; both the pelican and the hedgehog shall lodge on the upper part of her [fallen] pillars; the voice [of the nesting bird] shall sing in the windows; desolation {and} drought shall be on the thresholds, for her cedar paneling will He lay bare. |
2:15 This is the joyous {and} exultant city that dwelt carelessly [feeling so secure], that said in her heart, I am and there is none beside me. What a desolation she has become, a lair for [wild] beasts! Everyone who passes by her shall hiss and wave his hand [indicating his gratification]. |