1 The word of Yehowah that occurred to Zeph·a·ni´ah the son of Cush´i the son of Ged·a·li´ah the son of Am·a·ri´ah the son of Hez·e·ki´ah in the days of Jo·si´ah the son of A´mon the king of Judah:
2 “I shall without fail finish everything off the surface of the ground,” is the utterance of Yehowah.
3 “I shall finish off earthling man and beast. I shall finish off the flying creature of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked ones; and I will cut off mankind from the surface of the ground,” is the utterance of Yehowah. 4 “And I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off from this place the remaining ones of the Ba´al, the name of the foreign-god priests along with the priests, 5 and those who are bowing down upon the roofs to the army of the heavens, and those who are bowing down, making sworn oaths to Yehowah and making sworn oaths by Mal´cam; 6 and those who are drawing back from following Yehowah and who have not sought Yehowah and have not inquired of him.”
7 Keep silence before the Sovereign Lord Yehowah; for the day of Yehowah is near, for Yehowah has prepared a sacrifice; he has sanctified his invited ones.
8 “And it must occur on the day of Yehowah’s sacrifice that I will give attention to the princes, and to the sons of the king, and to all those wearing foreign attire. 9 And I will give attention to everyone that is climbing upon the platform in that day, those who are filling the house of their masters with violence and deception. 10 And there must occur on that day,” is the utterance of Yehowah, “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, you inhabitants of Mak´tesh, for all the people who are tradesmen have been silenced; all those weighing out silver have been cut off.
12 “And it must occur at that time that I shall carefully search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will give attention to the men who are congealing upon their dregs [and] who are saying in their heart, ‘Yehowah will not do good, and he will not do bad.’ 13 And their wealth must come to be for pillage and their houses for a desolate waste. And they will build houses, but they will not have occupancy; and they will plant vineyards, but they will not drink the wine of them.
14 “The great day of Yehowah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying [of it] very much. The sound of the day of Yehowah is bitter. There a mighty man is letting out a cry. 15 That day is a day of fury, a day of distress and of anguish, a day of storm and of desolation, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick gloom, 16 a day of horn and of alarm signal, against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers. 17 And I will cause distress to mankind, and they will certainly walk like blind men; because it is against Yehowah that they have sinned. And their blood will actually be poured out like dust, and their bowels like the dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yehowah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.”
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