1. The word of יהוה which came to Tsephanyah son of Kushi, son of Geḏalyah, son of Amaryah, son of Ḥizqiyah, in the days of Yoshiyahu son of Amon, sovereign of Yehuḏah.
2. “I shall snatch away all from the face of the earth,” declares יהוה –
3. “I snatch away man and beast, I snatch away the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks, with the wrong, when I shall cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares יהוה.
4. “And I shall stretch out My hand against Yehuḏah, and against all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and cut off every trace of Ba‛al from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests, with the priests,
5. and those bowing down to the host of the heavens on the house-tops, and those bowing themselves, swearing by יהוה and swearing by Malkam;
6. and those who turn away from following יהוה, and who have not sought יהוה or inquired of Him.”
7. Hush! in the presence of the Master יהוה. For the day of יהוה is near, for יהוה has prepared a slaughter, He has set apart His invited ones.
8. “And it shall be, in the day of the slaughter of יהוה, that I shall punish the rulers and the sons of the sovereign, and all such as are clad in foreign garments.
9. “And I shall punish on that day all who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10. “And on that day there shall be,” declares יהוה, “the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, and of a howling from the Second Quarter, and of a great crashing from the hills.