1The word of Yahweh that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah.
2“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the ground,” declares Yahweh.
3“I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks along with the wicked; and I will cut off mankind from the face of the ground,” declares Yahweh.
4“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
5and those who bow down on the rooftops to the host of the heavens, and those who bow down, swearing allegiance to Yahweh yet swearing by their king;
6and those who turn back from following Yahweh, and who have not sought Yahweh nor inquired of him.”
7Hush before the Lord Yahweh! For the day of Yahweh is near; for Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests.
8“And it shall come to pass on the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice that I will punish the officials and the king’s sons, and all who dress in foreign attire.
9And on that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, those who fill their masters’ house with violence and deceit.
10“And it shall come to pass on that day,” declares Yahweh, “a sound of an outcry from the Fish Gate, a wailing from the Second Quarter, and a great crashing from the hills.
11Wail, you inhabitants of the Mortar, for all the trading people are destroyed; all who weigh out silver are cut off.
12“And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent upon their dregs, who say in their heart, ‘Yahweh will do neither good nor harm.’
13Their wealth shall become plunder and their houses a desolation; they shall build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but not drink their wine.
14The great day of Yahweh is near, near and hastening very fast; the sound of the day of Yahweh—there the warrior cries out bitterly.
15That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness,
16a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers.
17“I will bring distress on mankind, and they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against Yahweh; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of Yahweh’s wrath; in the fire of his jealousy the whole earth shall be consumed, for he will make a complete end—indeed a terrifying one—of all the inhabitants of the earth.
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