A Plea for Repentance
1 Shameless nation, come to your senses 2 before you are driven away like chaff blown by the wind, before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day when he shows his fury. 3 Turn to the Lord, all you humble people of the land, who obey his commands. Do what is right, and humble yourselves before the Lord. Perhaps you will escape punishment on the day when the Lord shows his anger.
The Doom of the Nations around Judah
4 No one will be left in the city of Gaza. Ashkelon will be deserted. The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day, and the people of Ekron will be driven from their city. 5 You Philistines are doomed, you people who live along the coast. The Lord has passed sentence on you. He will destroy you, and not one of you will be left. 6 Your land by the sea will become open fields with shepherd's huts and sheep pens. 7 The people of Judah who survive will occupy your land. They will pasture their flocks there and sleep in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will be with them and make them prosper again.
8 The Lord Almighty says, “I have heard the people of Moab and Ammon insulting and taunting my people, and boasting that they would seize their land. 9 As surely as I am the living Lord, the God of Israel, I swear that Moab and Ammon are going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become a place of salt pits and everlasting ruin, overgrown with weeds. Those of my people who survive will plunder them and take their land.”
10 That is how the people of Moab and Ammon will be punished for their pride and arrogance and for insulting the people of the Lord Almighty. 11 The Lord will terrify them. He will reduce the gods of the earth to nothing, and then every nation will worship him, each in its own land.
12 The Lord will also put the people of Ethiopia to death.
13 The Lord will use his power to destroy Assyria. He will make the city of Nineveh a deserted ruin, a waterless desert. 14 It will be a place where flocks, herds, and animals of every kind will lie down. Owls will live among its ruins and hoot from the windows. Crows will caw on the doorsteps. The cedar wood of her buildings will be stripped away. 15 That is what will happen to the city that is so proud of its own power and thinks it is safe. Its people think that their city is the greatest in the world. What a desolate place it will become, a place where wild animals will rest! Everyone who passes by will shrink back in horror.
Kushandukila matjinyo
1 Shanganani, muzwikubunganye
imwi itjaba tjisina shoni,
2 musathu mukatutudzigwa kutjena
se bunye gunowuluka,
kugwadzamoyo kwa Yahwe
kusathu gukadelukila mu muli,
zhuba le bushongola gwa Yahwe
lisathu likamuzhila.
3 Shakani Yahwe imwi mose banakuzwiyisa pasi be shango,
imwi munolondolodza ndaulo dzabo.
Shakani ndulamo, shakani kuzwiyisa pasi,
pamwe swiyo mowobakililika,
mu zhuba le bushongola gwa Yahwe.
Sumikilisiwa kwe zwitjaba zwakapoteleka Iziraela
4 Ngoti Gaza inowofupatigwa,
Ashikeloni inowothukudzika.
Bathu be Ashidodi banowotatiwa zhuba lili pa thong'omana,
Ekironi inowodzikunugwa.
5 Yee mme wee! Mapalala imwi bagali be tjekelo dze gungwa,
imwi ludzi gwe Bakereti!
Dama la Yahwe lobhayana namwi,
iwe Kanana shango ye Bafilisitiya,
ndowokulobesa kudzina kusala kusina ne n'gali wasala.
6 Iwe tjekelo dze gungwa, unowobe mafudzilo,
matanga ne thiba dze balisi dzabanong'wisila mbudzi ne pkhwizi dzabo.
7 Shango iyeyo inowobe ye malimbelimbe e Juda,
ngono banowofudzila muili,
ng'umba dze Ashekeloni,
banowoizela mudzili madekwana.
Ngoti Yahwe Ndzimu wabo banowobakumbula,
bakabgwiliza kubhudilila kwabo.
8 Ndahwa masapa e Moabu
ne madado e Baamoni,
kuti bakasapulanya bathu bangu tjini,
bepembela ngekwe shango yabo.
9 Ndizo anditjatjila, kojalo Yahwe Masimbawose, Ndzimu we Iziraela,
Moabu unowosala unga Sodoma
ne Baamoni bakanga Gomora,
shango izhele zwishosho ne makomba e mwenyu,
shango yakathukudzika tjatjose.
Limbelimbe le bathu bangu lowobatapa,
batjila be itjaba tjangu banowodzitola.
10 Itjetji nditjo tjinowobe gobe labo ngekwe mazwikudzo abo,
ngoti bakasapulanya bakazwikudza
bebhayana ne bathu ba Yahwe Masimbawose.
11 Yahwe banobamukila ngekwa kabangalala,
bakatobosa midzimu yabo yose mu shango
ngono zwitjaba zose zwimu tjekelo zowobanamata
bamwe ne bamwe mu shango yabo.
12 Namwibo Bakhushi,
mowobulawa nge thumo langu.
13 Banowotambunudza luboko gwabo kubhayana ne baku bunandzwa,
bakalobesa Asiriya.
Banowothama Ninive ikabe dongo
ikakwakwalala se tjilambanyika.
14 Matanga anobutha pakati kwayo
zwitjili zose ngothubukana kwazo,
makunda na boshoni zowogala ko.
Hwunda dzowolila dziligele mu mafesitere,
magwada anowobe ali pa itubhu tje nkoba,
makwasayile e misida anowobe pa tjena.
15 Iwoyu nzi nkulu unozwikudza, wakabakililika,
wakabe uzwidwa uti, “Ndimi koga, akuna mmwe.”
Watjithukudzika kungapani kene!
Watjibe bugalo gwe phuka dze shango,
mmwe ne mmwe unopinda pauli,
unotjenama kapelegwa nge mate.