You must turn to God
1People of Israel, you are not ashamed
about all the wrong things that you have done.
You must change your lives
2before the day_of_the_Lord comes.
On the day_of_the_Lord you will burn
like chaff in fire.
You must change before the Lord punishes you,
because He is very angry.
3Everyone in the land who is humble
must ask what the Lord wants
and you must do it.
You must keep on doing right and being humble.
Maybe the Lord will not punish you when He comes.
The Philistines will suffer
4There will be no more people
in the town of Gaza
and the enemies will destroy everything
in the town of Ashkelon.
All the people in the town of Ashdod
will die on the same day,
and the enemies will destroy the town of Ekron.
5Yes, Philistines, you will suffer,
all of you who live near the sea,
who come from the Island of Crete.
People of Canaan, land of the Philistines,
the Lord says He will punish you.
There will be no more people living in your land.
6You are living near the sea now,
but shepherds will bring their sheep here
to eat the grass.
They will make their kraals here
for their sheep and goats.
7The people of Judah who are still_alive
will be like sheep and goats.
They will come and eat in the land
of the Philistines.
At night they will go to sleep in the houses
in the town of Ashkelon.
The Lord their God will be their Shepherd.
He will bless them and be with them
and all will be well with them.
The Lord will punish the other nations
8The Lord says:
‘I have heard how the Moabites and Ammonites
say bad things about my people.
They have said my people are useless
and they think they themselves
are very important.’
9The Lord who rules over everything, the God of Israel, says:
‘As sure as I live,
Moab and Ammon will become
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Where they live now,
only weeds will grow.
It will be like ground that is full of salt.
No one will ever live there again.
My people who are still_alive
will take everything that the Moabites
and Ammonites had
and they will take their land.’
10This will happen because the Moabites
and Ammonites were proud.
They thought they were very important
and they thought the Lord's people
were worthless, but they are the people of the Lord
who rules over everything.
11The Moabites and the Ammonites
will become afraid of the Lord
because He will destroy all the gods of the earth.
All the nations will bow before the Lord,
each in his own land.
12The Lord will also go to war_against
the people of Cush and they will all die.
13Then the Lord will put out his hand
towards the north
and He will destroy the Assyrians.
Where the city of Nineveh is now,
there will be a dry desert
where animals will stay.
No people will live there.
14All sorts of animals will lie down there.
Owls will sleep
on the pillars of the town.
The wind will blow through the windows.
A lot of bricks will fall from above
and lie at the doors,
because the enemies will break
all the cedar wood from the houses
and take it away.
15Nineveh was a city full of happy people,
who were not worried about anything.
They thought their city
was the best and the strongest.
But enemies will destroy the city.
Only animals will keep on staying there.
Everyone who goes past the place
will mock Nineveh.
They will look at the heaps of stones
and laugh at the city.
