2Before the decree takes effect—
         The day passes like the 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 you humble of the earth
         Who have carried out His ordinances;
         Seek righteousness, seek humility.
         Perhaps you will be hidden
         In the day of the LORD’S anger.

4For Gaza will be abandoned
         And Ashkelon a desolation;
         Ashdod will be driven out at noon
         And Ekron will be uprooted.

5Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
         The nation of the Cherethites!
         The word of the LORD is against you,
         O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
         And I will destroy you
         So that there will be no inhabitant.

6So the seacoast will be pastures,
         With caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.

7And the coast will be
         For the remnant of the house of Judah,
         They will pasture on it.
         In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down at evening;
         For the LORD their God will care for them
         And restore their fortune.

8“I have heard the taunting of Moab
         And the revilings of the sons of Ammon,
         With which they have taunted My people
         And become arrogant against their territory.

9“Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts,
         The God of Israel,
         “Surely Moab will be like Sodom
         And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—
         A place possessed by nettles and salt pits,
         And a perpetual desolation.
         The remnant of My people will plunder them
         And the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

10This they will have in return for their pride, because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the LORD of hosts. 11The LORD will be terrifying to them, for He will starve all the gods of the earth; and all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to Him, everyone from his own place.

12“You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword.”

13And He will stretch out His hand against the north
         And destroy Assyria,
         And He will make Nineveh a desolation,
         Parched like the wilderness.

14Flocks will lie down in her midst,
         All beasts which range in herds;
         Both the pelican and the hedgehog
         Will lodge in the tops of her pillars;
         Birds will sing in the window,
         Desolation will be on the threshold;
         For He has laid bare the cedar work.

15This is the exultant city
         Which dwells securely,
         Who says in her heart,
         “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
         How she has become a desolation,
         A resting place for beasts!
         Everyone who passes by her will hiss
         And wave his hand in contempt.

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah's anger come upon you.

Douay-Rheims Bible
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.

Darby Bible Translation
before the decree bring forth, before the day pass away as chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah's anger come upon you.

English Revised Version
before 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.

Webster's Bible Translation
Before the decree bringeth forth, before the day passeth as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD cometh upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger cometh upon you.

World English Bible
before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you, before the day of Yahweh's anger comes on you.

Young's Literal Translation
Before the bringing forth of a statute, As chaff hath the day passed on, While yet not come in upon you doth the heat of the anger of Jehovah, While yet not come in upon you doth a day of the anger of Jehovah,Caesarea. Strato's Tower.
The Arabian interpreter thinks the first name of this city was Hazor, Joshua 11:1. The Jews, Ekron, Zephaniah 2:4. "R. Abhu saith," (he was of Caesarea,) "Ekron shall be rooted out"; this is Caesarea, the daughter of Edom, which is situated among things profane. She was a goad, sticking in Israel, in the days of the Grecians. But when the kingdom of the Asmonean family prevailed, it overcame her, &c. R. Josi Bar Chaninah saith, What is that that is written, 'And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite?' (Zech …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Indwelling and Outgoing Works of God.
"And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."--Psalm xxxiii. 6. The thorough and clear-headed theologians of the most flourishing periods of the Church used to distinguish between the indwelling and outgoing works of God. The same distinction exists to some extent in nature. The lion watching his prey differs widely from the lion resting among his whelps. See the blazing eye, the lifted head, the strained muscles and panting breath. One can see that the crouching lion is laboring intensely. …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Of the Decrees of God.
Eph. i. 11.--"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Job xxiii. 13. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Having spoken something before of God, in his nature and being and properties, we come, in the next place, to consider his glorious majesty, as he stands in some nearer relation to his creatures, the work of his hands. For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being, the first conception …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

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