and those who turn their backs on ¹  the Lord and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.” ² 

I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ¹  and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ² 

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.

The filthy, ¹  stained city is as good as dead; the city filled with oppressors is finished! ² 

Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, “be certain that Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah. They will be overrun by weeds, ¹  filled with salt pits, ²  and permanently desolate. Those of my people who are left ³  will plunder their belongings; ⁴  those who are left in Judah ⁵  will take possession of their land.”

Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ²  The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines: “I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

I thought, ¹  ‘Certainly you will respect ²  me! Now you will accept correction!’ If she had done so, her home ³  would not be destroyed ⁴  by all the punishments I have threatened. ⁵  But they eagerly sinned in everything they did. ⁶ 

The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ¹  he has turned back your enemy. Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst! You no longer need to fear disaster.

Look, at that time I will deal with those who mistreated you. I will rescue the lame sheep ¹  and gather together the scattered sheep. I will take away their humiliation and make the whole earth admire and respect them. ² 

Her prophets are proud; ¹  they are deceitful men. Her priests defile what is holy; ²  they break God’s laws. ³ 

I will remove ¹  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ²  those who swear allegiance to the Lord ³  while taking oaths in the name of ⁴  their ‘king,’ ⁵ 

The Lord ¹  will attack the north ²  and destroy Assyria. He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins; it will be as barren ³  as the desert.

She is disobedient; ¹  she refuses correction. ²  She does not trust the Lord; she does not seek the advice of ³  her God.

before God’s decree becomes reality ¹  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ²  before the Lord’s raging anger ³  overtakes ⁴  you – before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!