Zephaniah 2:12-14

Contemporary English Version

Judgment on Ethiopia

¹²^(A) People of Ethiopia,^[a]
the sword of the Lord
will slaughter you!

Judgment on Assyria

¹³^(B) The Lord will reach to the north
to crush Assyria
    and overthrow Nineveh.^[b]
¹⁴Herds of wild animals
    will live in its rubble;
all kinds of desert owls
will perch on its stones
    and hoot in the windows.
Noisy ravens will be heard
inside its buildings,
    stripped bare of cedar.^[c]

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Footnotes

2.12 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush,” which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
2.13 Nineveh: The capital of Assyria; Nineveh was protected by a moat filled with water from the nearby Tigris River.
2.14 stripped … cedar: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.