A Call to Repentance (Joel 1:13–20; Amos 5:4–15; Luke 13:1–5)
1 UDB You people of Judah who ought to be ashamed, gather together to ask for God to merciful to you. BSB BSB: Gather yourselves, gather together, O shameful nation,
2 UDB Yahweh is very angry with you, so gather together now, before he punishes you—before he punishes you and sweeps you away as the wind blows away the chaff. BSB BSB: before the decree takes effect and 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.
3 UDB All you people in Judah who are humble, worship Yahweh and obey what he has commanded. Try to do what is right and to be humble. If you do that, perhaps Yahweh will protect you on the day when he punishes people. BSB BSB: Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.
Judgment on the Philistines (Jeremiah 47:1–7)
4 UDB When Yahweh punishes Philistia, the cities of Gaza and Ashkelon will lose all their inhabitants. Ashdod will be attacked and the people will be driven away at noon, when they are resting. The people of the city of Ekron will also be driven out. BSB BSB: For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon left in ruins. Ashdod will be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted.
5 UDB And terrible things will happen to you people of Philistia who live near the sea, because Yahweh has said he will punish you, also. He will get rid of all of you; not one of you will survive! BSB BSB: Woe 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.”
6 UDB The land of Philistia near the sea will become a pasture, a place for shepherds and their sheep pens. BSB BSB: So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.
7 UDB The people of Judah who survive will possess that land. At night they will sleep in the deserted houses in Ashkelon. Yahweh will take care of them; he will enable them to prosper again. BSB BSB: The coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; there they will find pasture. They will lie down in the evening among the houses of Ashkelon, for the LORD their God will attend to them and restore their captives.
Judgment on Moab and Ammon (Isaiah 16:1–14; Jeremiah 48:1–47)
8 UDB Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God of the Israelites, says this: "I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insult my people and plan to conquer my people's country. BSB BSB: “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
9 UDB So now, as surely as I live, I will destroy Moab and Ammon as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Their land will be a place where there are nettles and salt pits; it will be ruined forever, with none of their people living there! My people who survive will take away all their valuable possessions and also occupy their land." BSB BSB: Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and 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.”
10 UDB The people of Moab and Ammon will get what they deserve for being proud, because they made fun of the people who belong to Yahweh, commander of the angel armies. BSB BSB: This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.
11 UDB Yahweh will cause them to be terrified when he destroys all the gods of their countries. Then people from every nation will worship Yahweh, each in his own country. BSB BSB: The LORD will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then the nations of every shore will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.
Judgment on Cush and Assyria 12 UDB Yahweh says that he will also slaughter the people of Ethiopia. BSB BSB: “You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword.”
13 UDB Yahweh will punish and destroy Assyria, that land northeast of us, and cause its capital Nineveh to become ruined and deserted, and as dry as the desert. BSB BSB: And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
14 UDB Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and many kinds of wild animals will lie down there. Owls and crows will sit on the columns of the destroyed buildings, and they will hoot through the windows. There will be rubble in the doorways, and the valuable cedar beams in the roofs of the buildings will become visible. BSB BSB: Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will 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.
15 UDB The people of Nineveh used to be happy and proud, thinking that they were very safe. They were always saying, "Our city is the greatest city; there is no city as great as ours!" But now it will become a horrible place to see, a place where wild animals make their dens. And everyone who passes by there will hiss and scorn that city, and shake their fists to show that they detest that city very much. BSB BSB: This carefree city that 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 her hisses and shakes his fist.