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2. The Great Day of the Lord

¹ Gather together, gather yourselves together,
   you shameful nation,
² before the decree takes effect
   and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the LORD’s fierce anger
   comes upon you,
before the day of the LORD’s wrath
   comes upon you.
³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
   you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
   perhaps you will be sheltered
   on the day of the LORD’s anger.

Philistia

    ⁴ Gaza will be abandoned
   and Ashkelon left in ruins.
At midday Ashdod will be emptied
   and Ekron uprooted.
⁵ Woe to you who live by the sea,
   you Kerethite people;
the word of the LORD is against you,
   Canaan, land of the Philistines.
He says, “I will destroy you,
   and none will be left.”
⁶ The land by the sea will become pastures
   having wells for shepherds
   and pens for flocks.
⁷ That land will belong
   to the remnant of the people of Judah;
   there they will find pasture.
In the evening they will lie down
   in the houses of Ashkelon.
The LORD their God will care for them;
   he will restore their fortunes. Or will bring back their captives

Moab and Ammon

    ⁸ “I have heard the insults of Moab
   and the taunts of the Ammonites,
who insulted my people
   and made threats against their land.
⁹ Therefore, as surely as I live,”
   declares the LORD Almighty,
   the God of Israel,
“surely Moab will become like Sodom,
   the Ammonites like Gomorrah—
a place of weeds and salt pits,
   a wasteland forever.
The remnant of my people will plunder them;
   the survivors of my nation will inherit their land.”

    ¹⁰ This is what they will get in return for their pride,
   for insulting and mocking
   the people of the LORD Almighty.
¹¹ The LORD will be awesome to them
   when he destroys all the gods of the earth.
Distant nations will bow down to him,
   all of them in their own lands.

Cush

¹² “You Cushites, That is, people from the upper Nile region too,
will be slain by my sword.”

Assyria

    ¹³ He will stretch out his hand against the north
   and destroy Assyria,
leaving Nineveh utterly desolate
   and dry as the desert.
¹⁴ Flocks and herds will lie down there,
   creatures of every kind.
The desert owl and the screech owl
   will roost on her columns.
Their hooting will echo through the windows,
   rubble will fill the doorways,
   the beams of cedar will be exposed.
¹⁵ This is the city of revelry
   that lived in safety.
She said to herself,
   “I am the one! And there is none besides me.”
What a ruin she has become,
   a lair for wild beasts!
All who pass by her scoff
   and shake their fists.

The Prophet extends farther the threatened vengeance, and says, that God would also render to the Ethiopians the reward which they deserved; for they had also harassed the chosen people. But if God punished that nation, how could Ammon and Moab hope to escape? For how could God spare so great a cruelty, since he would visit with punishment the remotest nations? For the hatred of the Moabites and of the Ammonites, as we have said, was less excusable, because they were related to the children of Abraham. They ought, on this account, to have mitigated their fierceness: besides, vicinity ought to have rendered them more humane. But as they exceeded other nations in cruelty, a heavier punishment awaited them. Now this comparison was intended for this end—that the Jews might know that God would be inexorable towards the Moabites, by whom they had been so unjustly harassed, since even the Ethiopians would be punished, who yet were more excusable on account of their distance.

As to the words, some regard the demonstrative pronoun המה, eme, they, as referring to the Babylonians, and others, to the Moabites. I prefer to understand it of the Moabites, if we read, like them, or with them, as these interpreters consider it: for they regard the particle את, at, with, or כ, caph, like, to be understood, Ye Ethiopians shall be slain by my sword like them, or with them. It would in this case doubtless apply to the Moabites. But it seems to me that the sentence is irregular, even ye Ethiopians, and then, they shall be slain by any sword. The Prophet begins the verse in the second person, summoning the Ethiopians to appear before God’s tribunal; he afterwards adds in the third person, they shall be slain by my sword. ¹⁰³¹⁰³     Newcome cuts the knot, here by an emendation, by [אתם], ye, for [המה], they; and Houbigant, by [תהיו], ye shall be,—“the wounded of my sword shall ye be.” This is according to the Septuagint; but the former is more in accordance with the Hebrew idiom; for the pronoun is often used without the auxiliary verb. Some take [המה] as ipsi in Latin, connected with vos, ye yourselves. Then the rendering would be—
   Also ye Cushites,
The slain of my sword shall ye yourselves be.
   But what Calvin says is not uncommon in the Prophet, the abrupt change of persons.—Ed.

God calls whatever evils were impending over the Ethiopians his sword; for though they were destroyed by the Chaldeans yet it was done under the guidance of God himself. The Chaldeans made war under his authority, as the Assyrians did, who had been previously employed by him to execute his vengeance. It follows—