An exhortation to repentance. The judgment of the Philistines, of the Moabites, and the Ammonites; of the Ethiopians and the Assyrians.

¹ Assemble, be gathered together, O people not worthy to be loved.

² Until the decree settles accounts, the day like dust is passing away, before which the wrath of the fury of the Lord may overcome you, before which the day of the anger of the Lord may overcome you.¹

1. 2:2Or, ‘until the order goes forth.’(Conte)

³ Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth; you who have been working are his judgment. Seek the just, seek the meek. So then, in some way, you might be hidden in the day of the fury of the Lord.

⁴ For Gaza will be destroyed, and Ashkelon will be in the desert; they will expel Ashdod at midday, and Ekron will be eradicated.¹

1. 2:4Or, ‘they will cast out Ashdod at the Meridian.’ The Meridian is a way to refer to the equator of the earth. It can also refer to the country of Africa.(Conte)

⁵ Woe to you who inhabit the coast of the sea, you people of perdition. The word of the Lord is over you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines, and I will disperse you, so that not one inhabitant will be left.¹

1. 2:5Literally, ‘funiculum’ refers to a string or a rope or a line, but in this context it means a coastline.(Conte)

⁶ And the coastline of the sea will be a resting place for shepherds and a fence line for cattle.

⁷ And it will be the line of him who will remain from the house of Judah. There they will pasture. In the houses of Ashkelon, they will rest towards evening. For the Lord their God will visit them, and he will turn away their captivity.

⁸ I have heard about the disgrace of Moab and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, by which they have defamed my people and have been magnified beyond their borders.

⁹ Because of this, as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab will be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, like the dryness of thorns, and piles of salt, and a desert, all the way to eternity. The remnant of my people will despoil them, and the residue of my nation will possess them.

¹⁰ This will come upon them for their arrogance, because they have blasphemed and have been magnified over the people of the Lord of hosts.

¹¹ The Lord will be a horror over them, and he will reduce all the gods of the earth. And they will adore him, each man from his own place, all the islands of the Gentiles.

¹² Even so, you Ethiopians, you will be executed by my sword.

¹³ And he will extend his hand over the North, and he will destroy Assur. And he will set the Beautiful in the wilderness, and in an impassable place, and like a desert.¹²

1. 2:13‘Speciosam’ is capitalized after the Vercellone 1861 edition of the Vulgate, and because it clearly is used, as if a name, to refer to something specific. It could also, in this context, be loosely translated as ‘what was once called Beautiful,’ or, ‘the so-called Beautiful,’ since it is clear from subsequent verses that this place was not beautiful to God.(Conte)
2. 2:13The beautiful city: Ninive, which was destroyed soon after this, viz., in the sixteenth year of the reign of Josias.(Challoner)

¹⁴ And flocks will lie down in its midst, all the beasts of the Gentiles. And the pelican and the hedgehog will stay at its threshold; the voice of the singing bird will be at the window, with the crow above its threshold, for I will diminish her strength.

¹⁵ This is the glorious city, dwelling in trust, which said in her heart, “I am and there is no one other than me.” How has she become a lair for beasts in the desert? All who pass through her will hiss and wag their hand.