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1The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of ⚓Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
The Great Day of the Lord
2“I will utterly consume everything
From the face of the land,”
Says the Lord;
3“I⚓ will consume man and beast;
I will consume the birds of the heavens,
The fish of the sea,
And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.
I will cut off man from the face of the land,”
Says the Lord.
4“I will stretch out My hand against Judah,
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,
The names of the ⚓idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—
5Those ⚓who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;
Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,
But who also swear ⚓by Milcom;
6⚓Those who have turned back from following the Lord,
And ⚓have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”
7⚓Be silent in the presence of the Lord God;
⚓For the day of the Lordis at hand,
For ⚓the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
He has invited His guests.
8“And it shall be,
In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice,
That I will punish ⚓the princes and the king’s children,
And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
9In the same day I will punish
All those who ⚓leap over the threshold,
Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10“And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord,
“The sound of a mournful cry from ⚓the Fish Gate,
A wailing from the Second Quarter,
And a loud crashing from the hills.
11⚓Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh!
For all the merchant people are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off.
12“And it shall come to pass at that time
That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
And punish the men
Who are ⚓settled in complacency,
⚓Who say in their heart,
‘The Lord will not do good,
Nor will He do evil.’
13Therefore their goods shall become booty,
And their houses a desolation;
They shall build houses, but not inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards, but ⚓not drink their wine.”
14⚓The great day of the Lordis near;
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter;
There the mighty men shall cry out.
15⚓That day is a day of wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of devastation and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
16A day of ⚓trumpet and alarm
Against the fortified cities
And against the high towers.
17“I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall ⚓walk like blind men,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like refuse.”
18⚓Neither their silver nor their gold
Shall be able to deliver them
In the day of the Lord’s wrath;
But the whole land shall be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make speedy riddance
Of all those who dwell in the land.