TZEFANYAH.
Chapter 2.
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O shameful nation; 
Before the decree brings forth, before the day passes like the chaff, before the charon af Hashem comes upon you, before the Yom Af Hashem(Day of Hashemʼs Anger) comes upon you; 
Seek ye Hashem, all ye anvei ha'aretz (humble of the land), which have wrought His mishpat; seek tzedek, seek anavah (meekness, humility); it may be ye shall be hid in the Yom Af Hashem. 
For Azah (Gaza) shall be abandoned, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod in broad day, and Ekron shall be uprooted. 
Hoy (Woe) unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Keretim (Cretans)! The Devar Hashem is against you, O Kena'an, eretz of the Pelishtim (Philistines). I will even destroy thee, that there no inhabitant remains. 
And the seacoast shall be dwellings and meadows for ro'im (shepherds), and pens for tzon. 
And the coast shall be for the she'erit Bais Yehudah; they shall feed thereupon; in the batim (houses) of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the erev; for Hashem Eloheichem shall visit them, and restore their fortunes. 
I have heard the reproach of Moav, and the revilings of the Bnei Ammon, whereby they have reproached My nation, and magnified themselves against their territory. 
Therefore as I live, saith Hashem Tzva'os, Elohei Yisroel: Surely Moav shall be as Sodom, and the Bnei Ammon as Amora (Gomorrah), a place of weeds and salt pits, and desolation ad olam; the She'erit Ami shall plunder them, and the remnant of My nation shall possess them. 
This shall they have in return for their ga'on (pride), because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the Am Hashem Tzva'os. 
Hashem will be terrible unto them; for He will reduce to nothing all the elohei ha'aretz (g-ds of the land); and men shall worship Hashem, everyone from his place, even all the coasts and islands of the Goyim. 
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My cherev. 
And Hashem will stretch out His hand against the tzafon (north), and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like a midbar. 
And herds shall lie down in the midst of it, every beast of the Goy; both the desert owl and the screech owl will roost on her columns; their voice shall hoot in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; the beams of cedar will be exposed. 
This is HaIr HaAlizah (the rejoicing city) that dwelt carelessly, that said in her lev: I am, and there is none beside me; how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and shake his fist. 
