¹ Gather together, gather together, nations without shame,

² before you are dispersed like chaff which disappears in a day; before Yahweh's burning anger overtakes you (before the Day of Yahweh's anger overtakes you).

³ Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the earth, who obey his commands. Seek uprightness, seek humility: you may perhaps find shelter on the Day of Yahweh's anger.

⁴ For Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon reduced to ruins; Ashdod will be driven out in broad daylight and Ekron uprooted.

⁵ Disaster to the members of the coastal league, to the nation of the Cherethites! This is the word of Yahweh against you: I shall subdue you, land of the Philistines, I shall destroy you till there are no inhabitants left;

⁶ and the coastal league will be reduced to pasture land, to grazing grounds for shepherds and folds for sheep;

⁷ and the league will belong to the remnant of the House of Judah; they will pasture their flocks there, at night they will rest in the houses of Ashkelon; for, when Yahweh their God has punished them, he will restore their fortunes.

⁸ I have heard the taunt of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, as they taunted my people and boasted of their own domains.

⁹ For this, as I live -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel -- Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah: a realm of nettles, a heap of salt, a desolation for ever. What is left of my people will plunder them, the survivors of my nation will take their heritage.

¹⁰ This will be the price of their pride for having taunted and boasted over the people of Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹¹ Yahweh will be fearsome to them, for he will scatter all the gods of the earth, and they will bow down to him, each from his own place -- all the islands of the nations.

¹² You Ethiopians too will be run through by my sword.

¹³ He will raise his hand against the north and bring Assyria down in ruins; he will make Nineveh a waste, as dry as a desert.

¹⁴ Flocks will rest inside there, so will wild animals; pelican and porcupine will nest round her cornices at night; the owl will hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down.

¹⁵ This is what the city will be like, once living happy and carefree and thinking to itself, 'I have no rival -- not I!' And what will it be now? A ruin, a lair for wild beasts to rest in, and everyone who passes by will whistle and throw up his hands.

Daily Readings   Daily readings of the Mass. 7 days/week. See Sample E-mail:    Select Gender Male Female    Zip Code:

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

Ten Commandments | Books of the Bible | Buy a Bible

Old Testament »

New Testament »