1:13 Their wealth will be stolen
and their houses ruined!
They will not live in the houses they have built,
nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted.
2:3 Seek the Lord’s favor, 1 all you humble people 2 of the land who have obeyed his commands! 3
Strive to do what is right! 4 Strive to be humble! 5
Maybe you will be protected 6 on the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.
2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts
and the Ammonites’ insults.
They 7 taunted my people
and verbally harassed those living in Judah. 8
2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 9
for 10 he will weaken 11 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 12
1 tn Heb “seek the
2 tn Or “poor.” The precise referent of this Hebrew term is unclear. The word may refer to the economically poor or to the spiritually humble.
3 tn The present translation assumes the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) here refers to God’s covenantal requirements and is a synonym for the Law. The word can mean “justice” and could refer more specifically to the principles of justice contained in the Law. In this case the phrase could be translated, “who have promoted the justice God demands.”
4 tn Heb “Seek what is right.”
5 tn Heb “Seek humility.”
6 tn Heb “hidden.” Cf. NEB “it may be that you will find shelter”; NRSV “perhaps you may be hidden.”
1 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
2 tn Heb “and they made great [their mouth?] against their territory.” Other possible translation options include (1) “they enlarged their own territory” (cf. NEB) and (2) “they bragged about [the size] of their own territory.”
1 tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”
2 tn Or “certainly.”
3 tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”
4 tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”