1. Search yourselves and one another, O unfriendly people;
2. before the decree is executed, before the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you.
3. Seek ye the Lord, all ye humble of the earth, who have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek humility: it may be ye shall be kept in the day of the Lord’s anger.
4. For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall spoil Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
5. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the people of the Cherethites! the word of the Lord is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Palestinians, I will cause thee to be destroyed until there shall be no inhabitant left.
6. And the sea coast shall be for dwellings and cottages for pastors, and sheepfolds.
7. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon they shall sleep for the night; for the Lord their God shall visit them and return their captives.
8. I have heard the reproaches of Moab, and the revilings of the sons of Ammon, by which they have dishonoured my people and magnified themselves over their border.
9. Therefore as I live, said the Lord of the hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah, even a field of nettles and saltpits and a perpetual desolation; the remnant of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my Gentiles shall inherit them.