1Humble yourself, unruly nation; be humble,
2before you are driven away to disappear like chaff, before the burning anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger comes upon you.
3Seek the LORD, all in the land who live humbly, obeying his laws; seek righteousness, seek humility; it may be that you will find shelter on the day of the LORD's anger.
4Gaza will be deserted, Ashkelon left a waste; the people of Ashdod will be driven out at noonday, and Ekron will be uprooted.
5Woe betide you Kerethites who live by the coast! This word of the LORD is spoken against you: Land of the Philistines, I shall crush you, I shall lay you in ruins, bereft of inhabitants.
6Kereth will become pastures and sheepfolds,
7and the coastland will belong to the survivors of Judah. They will pasture their flocks by the sea and lie down at evening in the houses at Ashkelon, for the LORD their God will turn to them and restore their fortunes.
8I have heard the insults of Moab, the taunts of the Ammonites, how they reviled my people and encroached on their frontiers.
9For this, by my life, says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom, Ammon like Gomorrah, a mass of weeds, a heap of saltwort, waste land for evermore. Those of my people who survive will plunder them, the remnant of my nation will dispossess them.
10This will be retribution for their pride, because they have insulted the people of the LORD of Hosts and encroached upon their land.
11The LORD will bring terror on them; he will reduce to beggary all the gods of the earth. Then the nations in all the coasts and islands will worship him, each in its own land.
12You Cushites also will be slain by the sword of the LORD.
13He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, making Nineveh a waste, arid as the desert.
14Flocks will couch there, and every kind of wild animal. The horned owl and the bustard will roost on her capitals; the tawny owl will screech in the window, and the raven in the doorway.
15This is the city that exulted in her security, saying to herself, “I and I alone am supreme.” And what is she now? A waste, a haunt of wild animals, at which every passer-by may jeer and gesture!