“On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal, I will punish the princes ¹  and the king’s sons, and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. ² 

a day of trumpet blasts ¹  and battle cries. ²  Judgment will fall on ³  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, ¹  who fill the house of their master ²  with wealth taken by violence and deceit. ³ 

The Lord your God is in your midst; he is a warrior who can deliver. He takes great delight in you; ¹  he renews you by his love; ²  he shouts for joy over you.” ³ 

“I will destroy ¹  everything from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

“As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals – I took them away from you; they became tribute and were a source of shame to you. ¹ 

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 

This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ¹  for they taunted and verbally harassed ²  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

“I will attack ¹  Judah and all who live in Jerusalem. ²  I will remove ³  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ⁴  as well as the very memory ⁵  of the pagan priests. ⁶ 

At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps. I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹  those who think to themselves, ²  ‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ³ 

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!

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 

Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹  will take possession of it. ²  By the sea ³  they ⁴  will graze, in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening, for the Lord their God will intervene for them ⁵  and restore their prosperity. ⁶ 

“I have heard Moab’s taunts and the Ammonites’ insults. They ¹  taunted my people and verbally harassed those living in Judah. ² 

The Lord will terrify them, ¹  for ²  he will weaken ³  all the gods of the earth. All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ⁴ 

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.

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 

“I will destroy people and animals; I will destroy the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. (The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹  I will remove ²  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

This is how the once-proud city will end up ¹  – the city that was so secure. ²  She thought to herself, ³  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ⁴  What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live! Everyone who passes by her taunts her ⁵  and shakes his fist. ⁶ 

Therefore you must wait patiently ¹  for me,” says the Lord, “for the day when I attack and take plunder. ²  I have decided ³  to gather nations together and assemble kingdoms, so I can pour out my fury on them – all my raging anger. For ⁴  the whole earth will be consumed by my fiery anger.