1Gather yourselves, gather together,O shameful nation,2before the decree takes effectand the day passes like chaff,before the burning anger of the LORD comes upon you,before the Day of the LORD’s anger comes upon you.3Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earthwho carry out His justice.Seek righteousness; seek humility.Perhaps you will be shelteredon the day of the LORD’s anger.4For Gaza will be abandoned,and Ashkelon left in ruins.Ashdod will be driven out at noon,and Ekron will be uprooted.5Woe to the dwellers of the seacoast,O nation of the Cherethites!The word of the LORD is against you,O Canaan, land of the Philistines:“I will destroy you,and no one will be left.”6So the seacoast will become a land of pastures,with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.7The coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah;there they will find pasture.They will lie down in the eveningamong the houses of Ashkelon,for the LORD their God will attend to themand restore their captives.8“I have heard the reproach of Moaband the insults of the Ammonites,who have taunted My peopleand threatened their borders.9Therefore, as surely as I live,”declares the LORD of Hosts,the God of Israel,“surely Moab will be like Sodomand the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits,a perpetual wasteland.The remnant of My people will plunder them;the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”10This they shall have in return for their pride,for taunting and mocking the peopleof the LORD of Hosts.11The LORD will be terrifying to themwhen He starves all the gods of the earth.Then the nations of every shorewill bow in worship to Him,each in its own place.12“You too, O Cushites,will be slain by My sword.”13And He will stretch out His hand against the northand destroy Assyria;He will make Nineveh a desolation,as dry as a desert.14Herds will lie down in her midst,creatures of every kind.Both the desert owl and screech owlwill roost atop her pillars.Their calls will sound from the window,but desolation will lie on the threshold,for He will expose the beams of cedar.15This carefree citythat dwells securely,that thinks to herself:“I am it, and there is none besides me,”what a ruin she has become,a resting place for beasts.Everyone who passes by herhisses and shakes his fist.