1The Lord talked to Zephaniah in the time when Josiah was king_of_Judah. Josiah was the son of Amon. Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, Cushi was the son of Gedaliah, Gedaliah was the son of Amariah and Amariah was the son of Hezekiah.
The Lord is going to punish the people of Judah and Jerusalem
2The Lord says:
‘I am going to destroy everything on earth
and sweep it away.
3I will destroy all people and animals
and I will throw them away.
I will sweep away all the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea.
I will also sweep away their idols,
that have stopped other people
from doing right.
I will kill all the people
and take them away from the earth.’
The Lord also says:
4‘I will punish the people of Judah
and the people in Jerusalem.
I will kill all of them who still serve
the false god Baal.
No one will remember the names
of the priests of the idols.
I will kill all those priests,
5who stand on the roof tops
and bow in front of the stars,
the priests who bow before the Lord
and promise to bring Him gifts
but then also promise
to bring gifts to the false god Milcom.
6I will cause all the priests to die,
all those who have stopped serving Me
and no longer ask Me what to do.’
The day_of_the_Lord is near
7Keep quiet, because the Lord is near.
The day_of_the_Lord is not far away.
The Lord prepares everything.
He has prepared an offering.
He has consecrated the people
that He has invited.
8The Lord says: ‘On that day
I will punish the officials and the princes,
and everyone who wears clothes that come from other lands.
9I will punish everyone
who does not walk through
the temple door, but who jumps through
the door like the Gentiles always do.
I will punish everyone who is cruel
and does bad things to people.
They steal things from people
and then they bring those stolen things
to the temple of their King, the Lord.’
10The Lord says:
‘On that day they will hear people crying
and calling from the Fish Gate.
They will also hear them cry in the 2nd City.
They will hear houses break on the hills.
11People who live in the market place,
you must cry,
because all your merchants will die.
12On that day I will look for all the people
who are hiding in the dark in Jerusalem,
all the people who are satisfied
and think they don't need anything.
I will punish them.
They are the people who say:
“The Lord will do nothing.
He will not do anything that is good
or anything that is bad.”
13Enemies will come
and they will take away
everything that these rich people have
and they will break down their houses.
The rich people will build their houses again,
but they will not live in their houses.
They will plant vineyards,
but they will not get grapes to make wine.’
The day_of_the_Lord is coming
14The great day_of_the_Lord is near.
It is not far away. It will come soon.
It will be a very bad day,
and all the soldiers will be afraid and shout.
15On that day the Lord will be angry,
and on that day the people will suffer.
On that day storm winds will blow,
on that day it will become very dark,
and on that day there will be thunder clouds.
16On that day the enemies
will blow the trumpet and they will shout.
They will come and attack the strong walls
and the high towers of the city.
The Lord is angry
17The Lord says:
‘I will make the people suffer
because they have sinned_against Me.
They will walk like blind people,
their blood will fall to the ground
like dust and their insides
will come out of their bodies.’
18They have a lot of silver and gold,
but it will not help them on the day
when the Lord wants to punish them.
The Lord is very angry.
He is going to destroy everything on earth.
He will cause all the people on earth to die quickly.
