Zephaniah 2

Gather yourselves together. Yes, come together, you nation that no one wants.

1Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;

NoteThe Hebrew verb translated "gather" is related to a word for gathering up straw or stubble, which links this call to the image of chaff in the next verse. The phrase rendered "nation that no one wants" is uncertain in Hebrew: it can mean a nation that feels no shame, a nation nobody longs for, or a nation that has no longing itself. Translators have to pick one.

2Do this before the sentence takes effect and the day blows past like chaff in the wind. Do it before the LORD's burning anger reaches you, before the day of the LORD's anger reaches you.

2Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger come upon you.

NoteChaff is the light, dry husk left when grain is threshed. Farmers tossed the crushed grain into the air so the wind carried the chaff away, which made it a standard image for something worthless that vanishes in a moment. "The day of the LORD" was a fixed phrase among the prophets for a coming day when God settles accounts publicly; hearers would have known the term the way we know "judgment day."

3Seek the LORD, all you humble people of the earth who do what he commands. Seek what is right. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden and kept safe on the day of the LORD's anger.

3Seek 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.

NoteThe word for "humble" here also carries the sense of poor, powerless, and pushed around by others, social lowliness and a humble attitude at once. "Hidden" is the same root as the prophet's own name, Zephaniah, which means roughly "the LORD has hidden" or "the LORD protects."

4For Gaza will be left empty, and Ashkelon will be turned into ruins. Ashdod's people will be driven out at midday, and Ekron will be pulled up by the roots.

4For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.

NoteGaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron were four of the five main Philistine cities on the coastal plain southwest of Judah. In Hebrew the sentence is built on sound: Gaza (Azzah) will be azubah, abandoned, and Ekron will be uprooted (teaqer). Being driven out "at midday" was pointed, midday was the hottest hours, when fighting stopped and people rested indoors, so an attack then means an enemy so confident it does not bother waiting for dark.

5Trouble is coming to you who live along the seacoast, you nation of Cherethites. The LORD has spoken against you. Canaan, land of the Philistines, I will destroy you, and no one will be left living there.

5Woe 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, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.

NoteThe Cherethites were a group living on the same coast, connected in the Bible with Crete and generally taken as part of the Philistine population, who arrived from the Aegean world by sea. "Canaan" here is used narrowly for this strip of coastal land rather than for the whole country.

6The seacoast will become open grazing land, with wells and shelters for shepherds and pens for their flocks.

6And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.

7The coast will belong to those left alive of the house of Judah. They will graze their flocks there. In the evening they will lie down to sleep in the houses of Ashkelon, because the LORD their God will care for them and bring back those who were taken away as prisoners.

7And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house 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.

Note"Those left alive" translates a term the prophets use often, the remnant: the survivors of a disaster, out of whom a people is rebuilt. The last phrase is literally "turn their turning" and can mean either bringing home prisoners of war or, more broadly, reversing their fortunes; both senses are present in the Hebrew.

8I have heard Moab insulting my people, and I have heard the Ammonites mocking them. They have sneered at my people and made threats against their land.

8I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

NoteMoab and Ammon were small kingdoms east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River, immediate neighbors of Israel and Judah, and traditionally counted as relatives descended from Lot. Border raids and land disputes between them and Israel ran for centuries, which is why "threats against their land" is a specific charge, not a vague one.

9So, as surely as I live, says the LORD who commands the armies of heaven, the God of Israel: Moab will end up like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah. Their land will be a place of weeds and salt pits, ruined forever. Those left of my people will take their goods, and those left of my nation will take their land.

9Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

NoteSodom and Gomorrah were the two cities destroyed in Genesis and left as a byword for total, permanent ruin. Salt pits are the salt flats around the Dead Sea, close to Moabite and Ammonite territory: ground so saturated that nothing grows in it. "The LORD who commands the armies of heaven" renders "LORD of hosts," a title picturing God at the head of a vast army.

10This is what they get for their pride, because they sneered at the people of the LORD who commands the armies of heaven and boasted against them.

10This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.

11The LORD will terrify them, for he will starve out all the gods of the earth. Then people will worship him, each one from his own place, all along the distant coastlands of the nations.

11The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

NoteGods in the ancient world were fed: temples ran on a daily supply of grain, meat, oil and wine brought by worshipers. To starve a god is to cut off its offerings, which is to say its worship stops and its temple closes. "Distant coastlands" is the standard Hebrew term for lands and islands reached by sea, meaning the far edges of the known world.

12You Cushites too will be killed by my sword.

12Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.

NoteCush, which the King James Version calls Ethiopia, was the region up the Nile south of Egypt, roughly modern Sudan and southern Egypt, not the modern country of Ethiopia. In this period Cushite kings had ruled Egypt, so naming Cush points at Egyptian power generally.

13And he will reach out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria. He will leave Nineveh in ruins, as dry as a desert.

13And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

NoteAssyria was the empire that dominated the entire region for well over a century, deported the northern kingdom of Israel, and made Judah a tribute-paying vassal. Nineveh was its capital, on the Tigris in northern Iraq; it fell in 612 BC. "The north" is where Assyria lay from Judah's point of view, since armies traveled around the desert rather than across it.

14Herds will lie down in the middle of the city, animals of every kind. The desert owl and the screech owl will roost on the tops of her columns. Their calls will echo through the windows. The doorways will be piles of rubble, because he will strip away the cedar paneling.

14And 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.

NoteThe two birds are unidentified. The Hebrew words appear only a handful of times, and translators have guessed at pelican, cormorant, hedgehog, desert owl and screech owl; what is clear is that they are creatures of empty ruins. Cedar came from Lebanon and had to be imported at great cost, so cedar panelling was the mark of a palace, stripping it exposes the bare structure of a building nobody is maintaining.

15This is the celebrating city that lived without a worry, that said to herself, "I am the one, and there is no other." Look what a ruin she has become, a place where wild animals lie down. Everyone who walks by hisses at her and shakes a fist.

15This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

NoteHissing and shaking the fist were recognized gestures of scorn aimed at a ruined place, the ancient equivalent of a jeer as you pass. "I am the one, and there is no other" is a formula of absolute self-sufficiency; the same wording is used elsewhere in the prophets as speech belonging to God alone, which is what makes it striking on a city's lips.