The word of Jehovah that came to  ¹Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah.

I will utterly remove everything
From off the face of the earth,
Declares Jehovah.

I will remove man and beast;
I will remove the birds of heaven and the fish of the sea,
And the stumbling blocks with the wicked;
And I will cut off man
From the face of the earth,
Declares Jehovah.

And I will stretch out My hand against Judah
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place,
And the name of the idol priests with the priests,

And those who worship upon the housetops
The host of heaven,
And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah
And swear by  ¹Malcam,

And those who have been turned back from going after Jehovah
And have not sought Jehovah
And have not inquired of Him.

Be silent before the Lord Jehovah,
For the  ¹day of Jehovah is near;
For Jehovah has prepared a  ²sacrifice;
He has  ³consecrated those whom He has called.

And in the day of the sacrifice of Jehovah
I will punish the princes
And the sons of the king
And all who wear
The clothing of foreigners.

And in that day I will punish
All who leap over the threshold,
Who fill their master's house
With violence and deceit.

And in that day, declares Jehovah,
There will be the sound of an outcry from the Fish Gate
And wailing from the second district
And a great crashing from the hills.

Wail, O inhabitants of Maktesh,
For all the people of Canaan are destroyed,
All who are laden with silver are cut off.

And at that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps,
And I will punish the men
Who have settled on their lees,
Who say in their heart,
Jehovah will not do good,
Nor will He do evil.

And their wealth will become plunder,
And their houses, a desolation.
Indeed they will build houses but not inhabit them,
And they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine from them.

The great day of Jehovah is near;
It is near and hastens greatly.
The sound of the day of Jehovah!
The mighty man bitterly cries there.

That day is a day of overflowing wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of waste and ruin,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and deep darkness,

A day of trumpet and alarm
Against the fortified cities
And against the high battlements.

And I will bring distress upon the men,
So that they walk about like the blind,
For they have sinned against Jehovah;
And their blood will be poured out like dust,
And their bowels like dung.

Neither their silver nor their gold
Will be able to deliver them
In the day of the overflowing wrath of Jehovah;
But the whole land will be devoured by the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make an end, nothing other than sudden destruction,
Of all the inhabitants of the land.

 ¹Gather yourselves together, yes, gather,
O nation that has no shame,

Before the decree has effect,
(The day passes like chaff)
Before there comes upon you
The burning anger of Jehovah,
Before there comes upon you
The day of Jehovah's anger.

Seek Jehovah,
All you meek of the earth,
Who have performed His judgments.
Seek righteousness;
Seek meekness;
Perhaps you will be hidden
In the day of Jehovah's anger.

For Gaza will be a forsaken city,
And Ashkelon will become a desolation;
As for Ashdod, they will drive it out at noontime,
And Ekron will be rooted up.

Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,
O nation of Cherethites!
The word of Jehovah is against you,
O Canaan, O land of the Philistines:
I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitant.

And the seacoast will be pastures with shepherds' caves
And folds for flocks.

And the area will be
For the remnant of the house of Judah;
They will feed their flocks upon them.
In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,
For Jehovah their God will visit them
And turn again their captivity.

I have heard the reproaching of Moab
And the revilings of the children of Ammon,
By which they have reproached My people
And magnified themselves against their border.

Therefore as I live,
Declares Jehovah of hosts,
The God of Israel,
Moab will surely be like Sodom,
And the children of Ammon like Gomorrah,
A possession of scrubs
And salt pits
And a perpetual desolation;
The remnant of My people will spoil them,
And the residue of My nation will inherit them.

This will they have for their pride, for they reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts.

Jehovah will be terrible to them, for He will make all the gods of the earth vanish, and all the coastlands of the nations will worship Him, each from his own place.

You  ¹Cushites also
Will be slain by My sword.

And He will stretch out His hand against the north
And will destroy Assyria,
And will make Nineveh a desolation
And a desert, like the wilderness.

And herds will stretch out in the midst of her,
And animals of every kind;
Both the pelican and the porcupine
Will lodge in her capitals.
Their voice will sing in the windows;
Desolation is upon the threshold;
For He has laid the cedar work bare.

This is the jubilant city
That dwelt securely,
That said in her heart, I am,
And there is none besides me.
How she has become a desolation,
A place for animals to stretch out!
Everyone who passes by her will hiss
And wave his hand at her.

Woe to the  ¹rebellious and defiled one,
To the oppressing city!

She has not listened to the voice;
She has not taken the correction.
She has not trusted in Jehovah;
She has not drawn near to her God.

Her princes in the midst of her
Are roaring lions.
Her judges are wolves of the evening;
They have left nothing until the morning.

Her prophets are vainglorious;
They are men of treachery.
Her priests have defiled the sanctuary;
They have done violence to the law.

Jehovah is righteous in the midst of her;
He does no wrong;
Morning by morning He brings His justice to light;
He does not fail; but he who is wrong knows no shame.

I have cut off nations;
Their battlements are desolated;
I have made their streets a waste,
So that no one passes through;
Their cities are destroyed,
So that there is no one,
So that there is no inhabitant.

I said, Only fear Me;
Take the correction;
That her habitation might not be cut off,
According to all that I have appointed concerning her.
But they rose up early to corrupt
All their deeds.

Therefore wait on Me, declares Jehovah,
For the day when I rise up to the prey.
For My decision is to assemble the nations,
To gather kingdoms together,
That I may pour out upon them My wrath,
All My burning anger;
For in the fire of My jealousy
All the earth will be devoured.

For then I will change the language of the peoples
Into a  ¹pure language
That they may all call upon the name of Jehovah,
To serve Him with one  ²accord.

From beyond the rivers of  ¹Cush my suppliants,
The daughter of My dispersed, will bring My meal offering.

In that day you will not be put to shame because of all your deeds,
By which you have transgressed against Me;
For then I will take away from your midst
Those who exult in your majesty,
And you will never again be haughty
On My holy mountain.

And I will leave in the midst of you
An afflicted and poor people,
And they will take refuge in the name of Jehovah.

The remnant of Israel will not do wrong;
And they will not speak lies,
Nor will there be found in their mouth
A deceitful tongue;
For they will have pasture and lie down,
And there will be no one to frighten them.

Give a ringing shout, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!

Jehovah has taken away your judgments;
He has turned aside your  ¹enemy.
The  ²King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of you;
You will not  ³see evil again.

In that day it will be said to Jerusalem,
Fear not, O Zion;
Let not your hands drop.

Jehovah your God in the midst of you
Is a mighty One who saves;
He will be jubilant over you with rejoicing;
He will rest in His love;
He will exult over you with a ringing shout.

I will gather those who mourn for the appointed assembly,
Who were of you.
The reproach was a burden upon  ¹them.

Indeed at that time
I will deal with all who afflict you;
And I will save that which is lame,
And that which has been driven away I will gather.
And I will make them a praise and a name
In every land where their shame had been.

At that time I will bring you in,
And at that time I will gather you;
For I will cause you to be a name and a praise
Among all the peoples of the earth,
When I turn again your captivity before your eyes,
Says Jehovah.

In the second year of  ¹Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came through  ²Haggai the prophet unto  ³Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and unto Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

Thus says Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has not come, the time for the house of Jehovah to be built.

Then the word of Jehovah came through Haggai the prophet, saying,

Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled-up houses, while this house lies waste?

Now therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts,  ¹Consider your ways.

You have sown much, but you bring in  ¹little; you eat, but there is no satisfaction; you drink, but there is no being filled with drink; you dress yourselves, but there is no warmth in doing so; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Consider your ways.

Go up to the mountain and  ¹bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it and will be glorified, says Jehovah.

You looked for much, and yet it amounted to little; and when you brought it home, I blew on it. Why? declares Jehovah of hosts. Because of My house that lies waste while you each  ¹run to your own house.

Therefore over you the heavens withhold their dew, and the earth withholds its yield.

Indeed I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the grain and upon the new wine and upon the fresh oil and upon that which the ground brings forth and upon man and upon beast and upon all the toil of the hands.

And Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people listened to the voice of Jehovah their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people were in fear before Jehovah.

Then Haggai, Jehovah's messenger, spoke in Jehovah's message to the people, saying, I am with you, declares Jehovah.

And Jehovah stirred up the  ¹spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the  ¹spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the  ¹spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did  ²work in the house of Jehovah of hosts their God,

On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came through Haggai the prophet, saying,

Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying,

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares Jehovah; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, declares Jehovah, and work; for I am with you, declares Jehovah of hosts.

Both the word which I covenanted with you when you came forth from Egypt and My Spirit endure among you; do not fear.

For thus says Jehovah of hosts,  ¹Yet once more — it is but a little while — I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land;

And I will shake all the nations, and the  ¹Desire of all the nations will come; and I will fill this house with glory, says Jehovah of hosts.

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, declares Jehovah of hosts.

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says Jehovah of hosts; and in this place I will give peace, declares Jehovah of hosts.

In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah came to Haggai the prophet, saying,

Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Ask now the priests for instruction, saying,

If one carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt he touches bread or boiled food or wine or oil or any other food, will it become holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean because of a corpse touches any of these, will it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It will be unclean.

Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people and so is this nation before Me, declares Jehovah, and so is all the work of their hands. Thus what they offer there is  ¹unclean.

And now, consider from this day and previously, before a stone was set upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah,

Before these days were, someone would come to a grain heap for twenty measures, and there would be only ten; someone would come to a vat to draw fifty troughfuls, and there would be only twenty.

I struck you with blight and with mildew and with hail on all the work of your hands; but on your part, none turned to Me, declares Jehovah.

Consider from this day and previously, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was laid; consider.

Is there yet seed in the barn? Indeed even the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit; from this day I will bless you.

And the word of Jehovah came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,

Speak to  ¹Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth.

And I will overthrow the throne of the kingdoms and will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, each by the sword of his brother.

In that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant, declares Jehovah, and make you as a signet; for I have chosen you, declares Jehovah of hosts.