Zephaniah

The Book of Sephaniah

1 Jehovah’s word which came to Sephaniah the son of Cushi the son of Gedaliah the son of Amariah the son of Hezekiah in the time of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

2 I will take off everything off the face of the earth, quoth Jehovah: 3 I will take off man and beast, I will take off the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, and I will extirpate mankind off the face of the earth, quoth Jehovah. 4** And I will stretch out my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and exterminate from this place the kin of the Baal and the kith of the komers, 5* and those who do reverence on the roof to the legions of the sky, and those who do reverence to Jehovah and swear by Malcam, 6 and those who fall back from following Jehovah and those who have not gone looking for Jehovah nor resorted to him.

7 Silence because of the Lord Jehovah, because Jehovah’s day is near; because Jehovah has prepared for a sacrifice, has hallowed his guests. 8 And on the day of Jehovah’s sacrifice I will punish the generals and the royal family and all that wear foreign clothing, 9 and I will punish on that day everyone who leaps over a threshold, those who fill their master’s house with outrage and fraud. 10 And on that day, quoth Jehovah, there shall be the sound of an outcry from the fish gate and a howling from the second quarter and a great crashing from the hills. 11* Howl, inhabitants of the hollow, because all the people of Canaan are cut off; all those who were laden with silver are exterminated. 12 And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps; and I will punish the men that are stiffened on their lees, that say to themselves “Jehovah will do no good and no harm.” 13 And their wealth shall be for pillage, and their houses become a desolation; and they shall build houses and not live there, and plant vineyards and not drink the wine of them.

14 Jehovah’s great day is near, near and speeding swiftly on; the sound of Jehovah’s day is bitter, a champion is yelling there. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and hard straits, a day of blast and blight, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick air, 16* a day of horn-blowing and cheering against the fortified cities and against the high corner-towers. 17* And I will bring distress on men, and they shall go like blind men, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be spilled like dust, and their entrails like cow-droppings. 18** Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of Jehovah’s wrath; and by the fire of his jealousy all the country shall be consumed. For he will dispatch all the inhabitants of the country in a finish full of sheer consternation.