Zephaniah 2:4-10

4Then, the people who have lived in Gaza city and Ashkelon city will not be there. Enemies will also send away the people in Ashdod city at midday. And those enemies will destroy Ekron city.

5Terrible trouble will come to you people who came from Crete, you people who live beside the sea! The Lord has said this against you: I will kill all you Philistines who live in the land of Canaan! You will all die. So nobody will live there.

6By the sea, there will be houses for people who feed sheep. There will be safe places for their sheep.

7Those people in Judah who love God will live there, by the sea. They will have food there. They will lie down to sleep in Ashkelon city's houses. The Lord, their God, will be with them. He will stop their troubles.

8The Lord of all his armies says, ‘I have heard the cruel people in the countries called Moab and Ammon. They laugh about you and they say cruel things about you, my people. They have thought that they were greater than you. They have come against you.’

9The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, ‘You can be sure that I live. In the same way, you can also be sure that my people will take everything for themselves. God will destroy Moab as he destroyed Sodom. He will destroy Ammon as he destroyed Gomorrah. After this, the ground will have lots of salt on it. Weeds will grow there. Nobody will build anything there again. My people who are still alive will take for themselves the Ammonites' things and the Moabites' things.’

10That will happen to all proud people. The proud people said cruel words to God's people. The cruel people thought that they were greater than the people of the Lord Almighty.