The call to turn to God before punishment came
2
📚Gather yourselves together; yes, gather together,
O nation not desirable 📖,
2 📚Before the decree is carried out,
before the day takes away
the chaff,
before the fierce anger of the LORD
comes on you,
before the day of the LORD’s anger
comes on you.
3 📚Seek 📖 the LORD, all you meek 📖
of the earth,
who have behaved in accordance
with his justice.
Seek righteousness 📖, seek meekness 📖.
Perhaps 📖 you will be hidden
in the day of the LORD’s anger.
2:2-3 A call to repentance before punishment falls.⚜
Punishment coming on nations around Judah
4 📚For Gaza will be abandoned,
and Ashkelon will become
a desolation.
At midday they will drive out
the people of Ashdod,
and Ekron will be uprooted.
5 📚Woe to the inhabitants
of the seacoast,
the nation of the Kerethites 📖!
The word of the LORD is
against you,
O Canaan, the land of the Philistines:
“I will destroy you, so that no one
will live there”.
6 📚And the seacoast will become
pastures,
and caves for shepherds,
and folds for flocks.
7 📚And the coast will be for the remnant 📖
of the house of Judah.
They will feed their flocks there.
In the evening they will lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon;
for the LORD their God will
visit them,
and turn away their captivity 📖.
2:4-7 A prophecy of God’s judgment on the Philistines. See also Amos 1:6-8; Ezek 25:15-17. Note on Philistines at Gen 10:14. Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron were important cities in their land.⚜
On the people of Moab and Ammon
8 📚“I have heard the insults of Moab,
and the taunts of the children
of Ammon,
with which they have insulted
my people,
and exalted themselves against
their borders.
9 📚Therefore, as I live”, says the LORD
of hosts 📖, the God of Israel,
“surely Moab will become like Sodom,
and the land of the children
of Ammon like Gomorrah 📖,
a place of weeds and salt pits,
and a permanent desolation.
Those who are left of my people
will plunder them,
and the remnant of my people
will possess them 📖.
2:8-9 God pronounces judgment on the people of Moab and the Ammonites together. They were descended from the same man (Gen 19:36-38), and lived in the same general area. For other prophecies about them see Isa 11:14; 15:1—16:14; Jer 9:26; 48; 49:1-6; Ezek 21:28-32; 25:1-11; Amos 2:1-3. Both nations were continual enemies of Israel.⚜
10 📚This they will have for their pride 📖,
because they have insulted
and exalted themselves against
the people of the LORD of hosts”.
11 📚The LORD will be terrifying
to them, for he will famish
all the gods of the earth.
And each people will worship him 📖
from their own place,
On Cush
all the islands of the nations.
12 📚 “You Ethiopians also will be slain
by my sword 📖”.
2:12 Again God speaks. Note on “Ethiopia” – or “Cush” – at Isa 18:1.⚜
On Assyria
13 📚And he will stretch out his hand
against the north and destroy Assyria,
and make Nineveh a desolation
and as dry as a desert.
14 📚And flocks will lie down
in the middle of her,
and all the beasts
of the country.
Both the cormorant and the bittern 📖
will lodge on the tops
of its pillars;
their voice will sing
through the windows.
Desolation will be
on the threshold;
for he will lay bare the cedar work.
15 📚This is the rejoicing city
that lived without a care,
that said in her heart,
“I am 📖, and there is no one
beside me”.
What a desolation she has become!
A place for beasts to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her will hiss,
and shake his fist.
2:13-15 For other prophecies against Assyria and its capital Nineveh, see Isa 10:12-19; 19:23-25; Nahum 1—3 . Note on Assyria at 2 Kings 15:19.⚜