3 Seek the Lord’s favor, all you humble people of the land who have obeyed his commands!Strive to do what is right! Strive to be humble!Maybe you will be protected on the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.
4 Indeed, Gaza will be desertedand Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins.Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon,and Ekron will be overthrown.
5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, are as good as dead.The Lord has decreed your downfall, Canaan, land of the Philistines:“I will destroy everyone who lives there!”
6 The seacoast will be used as pasture lands by the shepherdsand as pens for their flocks.
7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah will take possession of it.By the sea they will graze,in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,for the Lord their God will intervene for them and restore their prosperity.
8 “I have heard Moab’s tauntsand the Ammonites’ insults.They taunted my peopleand verbally harassed those living in Judah.
9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,“be certain that Moab will become like Sodomand the Ammonites like Gomorrah.They will be overrun by weeds,filled with salt pits,and permanently desolate.Those of my people who are left will plunder their belongings;those who are left in Judah will take possession of their land.”