A Call to Repentance (Joel 1:13–20; Amos 5:4–15; Luke 13:1–5)
1 UST You people of Judah ought to be ashamed of your sins! You should certainly gather together{ and ask Yahweh to be merciful to you}. BSB BSB: Gather yourselves, gather together, O shameful nation,
2 UST { Gather together and pray for mercy} before Yahweh punishes you as he has said he will. Otherwise he will destroy you completely, just as the wind blows chaff away entirely. Yahweh is very angry with you, and if you do not repent, he will punish you. 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 UST All of you people in Judah who are willing to humble yourselves, worship Yahweh and obey what he has commanded. Try to do what is right and make sure that you stay humble. If you do that, perhaps Yahweh will protect you when he punishes other people for their sins. 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 UST { When Yahweh punishes the Philistines,} the cities of Gaza and Ashkelon will lose all of their inhabitants. An army will attack the city of Ashdod in broad daylight and drive away all of its people. An army will also drive away the people of the city of Ekron. 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 UST Terrible things will happen to you Philistine people! You live near the sea. Yahweh has said that he will punish you Philistines who live in that part of the land of Canaan. He will punish you until everyone who used to live there is dead. 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 UST There will no longer be any cities in the seaside land of Philistia. There will only be grass. Shepherds will keep their sheep there so that they can eat the grass. BSB BSB: So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.
7 UST The Judean people who survive will go and live in that land. They will graze their sheep in those pastures. They will move into the houses that the Philistines have abandoned in the city of Ashkelon. This will happen because those Judeans will worship Yahweh once again as their God. Yahweh will take care of them and make them prosperous 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 UST Yahweh is the commander of the heavenly armies and the God of the Israelites. He says this:“I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insult my people. I have seen them stealing territory from my people. So now I swear that I am going to destroy Moab and Ammon as completely as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Crops will no longer grow on their land, only weeds. The only way people will be able to make a living from that land will be to dig in the ground to get salt from the salt deposits there. No one will ever rebuild the buildings that were there. My people who survive will take away all the valuable possessions that once belonged to the Moabites and Ammonites. Those people will be the ones who own that land.” BSB BSB: “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
10 UST The people of Moab and Ammon will get what they deserve for having been so proud. They should not have insulted the people who belong to Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. They should not have tried to take away their land. BSB BSB: This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.
11 UST The people of Moab and Ammon will be greatly afraid when Yahweh punishes them. He will do that so powerfully that people will stop worshiping all other gods. People in every nation will worship Yahweh instead. Each person will do that 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 UST Yahweh has also said that he will slaughter the people of Ethiopia. BSB BSB: “You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword.”
13 UST Yahweh will also punish and destroy the people of Assyria. They live in a land that is northeast of us. He will cause an enemy army to destroy their capital city of Nineveh. It will become a place where no plants grow, like 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 UST Groups of many different kinds of wild animals will live where Nineveh used to be. Various kinds of owls will make their nests on top of the columns of its destroyed buildings. Those owls will sometimes perch on the sills of empty windows and hoot. Rubble will block the doorways. Rain and sunlight will ruin the valuable cedar wood that the Assyrians used to build their buildings. 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 UST The people of Nineveh used to be proud. They thought that no other country could conquer them. They said to each other,“Our city is the greatest city! No other city is as great as ours!” But an enemy army will completely destroy Nineveh. It will become a place where wild animals make their dens. People who go by that area will often make hissing sounds and shake their fists to show how much they hated that city. 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.