2:4 Indeed, 1 Gaza will be deserted 2
and Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins. 3
Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon, 4
and Ekron will be overthrown. 5
2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, 6 are as good as dead. 7
The Lord has decreed your downfall, 8 Canaan, land of the Philistines:
“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” 9
2:6 The seacoast 10 will be used as pasture lands 11 by the shepherds
and as pens for their flocks.
2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah 12 will take possession of it. 13
By the sea 14 they 15 will graze,
in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,
for the Lord their God will intervene for them 16 and restore their prosperity. 17
2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts
and the Ammonites’ insults.
They 18 taunted my people
and verbally harassed those living in Judah. 19
2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,
“be certain that Moab will become like Sodom
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.
They will be overrun by weeds, 20
filled with salt pits, 21
and permanently desolate.
Those of my people who are left 22 will plunder their belongings; 23
those who are left in Judah 24 will take possession of their land.”
2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, 25
for they taunted and verbally harassed 26 the people of the Lord who commands armies.
2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 27
for 28 he will weaken 29 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 30
2:12 “You 31 Ethiopians 32 will also die by my sword!” 33
2:13 The Lord 34 will attack the north 35
and destroy Assyria.
He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;
it will be as barren 36 as the desert.
2:14 Flocks and herds 37 will lie down in the middle of it,
as well as every kind of wild animal. 38
Owls 39 will sleep in the tops of its support pillars;
they will hoot through the windows. 40
Rubble will cover the thresholds; 41
even the cedar work 42 will be exposed to the elements. 43
2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up 44 –
the city that was so secure. 45
She thought to herself, 46 “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” 47
What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!
Everyone who passes by her taunts her 48 and shakes his fist. 49