1 Band together, men of a nation so little loved, bind yourselves in one; 2 ere resolve can bear fruit, like flying chaff passes the day.[1] Before the divine vengeance falls on you, before the day of divine retribution comes, to the Lord betake you! 3 To honest doing and patient suffering betake you, men of humble heart wherever you be, men obedient to his will; it may be, when the hour of the Lord’s vengeance comes, you shall find refuge.
1 Convenite, congregamini, gens non amabilis, 2 priusquam pariat jussio quasi pulverem transeuntem diem,antequam veniat super vos ira furoris Domini,antequam veniat super vos dies indignationis Domini. 3 Quærite Dominum, omnes mansueti terræ,qui judicium ejus estis operati;quærite justum, quærite mansuetum,si quomodo abscondamini in die furoris Domini.
4 Gaza and Ascalon to rack and ruin left, Azotus stormed ere the day is out, root and branch destroyed is Accaron! 5 Out upon the forfeited race[2] that holds yonder strip of coast-land; the Lord’s doom is on it, the little Chanaan of the Philistines; wasted it shall be, and never a man to dwell in it. 6 There on the coast-land shepherds shall lie at ease, there shall be folds for flocks; 7 and who shall dwell there? The remnant that is left of Juda’s race; there they shall find pasturage, take their rest, when evening comes, in the ruins of Ascalon, when the Lord their God brings them relief, restores their fortunes again.
4 Quia Gaza destructa erit,et Ascalon in desertum:Azotum in meridie ejicient,et Accaron eradicabitur. 5 Væ qui habitatis funiculum maris, gens perditorum!verbum Domini super vos, Chanaan, terra Philisthinorum;et disperdam te, ita ut non sit inhabitator. 6 Et erit funiculus maris requies pastorum, et caulæ pecorum; 7 et erit funiculus ejus qui remanserit de domo Juda: ibi pascentur,in domibus Ascalonis ad vesperam requiescent,quia visitabit eos Dominus Deus eorum,et avertet captivitatem eorum.
8 And what of Moab, what of Ammon? Doubt not I have heard the blasphemous taunts they uttered against my own people, as they encroached upon its borders. 9 As I am a living God, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, no better shall Moab and Ammon be than Sodom and Gomorrha, all waste and brushwood and salt-pits, for ever desolate; of my own people enough remnant shall be left, a nation still, to plunder and to conquer them. 10 Pride that would mock and overreach his own people he, the Lord of hosts, knows how to punish; 11 see what terror he strikes into them! Peak and pine they, gods of the other nations; rise they from their places, one by one, to adore him, island-dwellers of the world.
8 Audivi opprobrium Moab,et blasphemias filiorum Ammon,quæ exprobraverunt populo meo,et magnificati sunt super terminos eorum. 9 Propterea vivo ego, dicit Dominus exercituum, Deus Israël,quia Moab ut Sodoma erit,et filii Ammon quasi Gomorrha:siccitas spinarum, et acervi salis,et desertum usque in æternum:reliquiæ populi mei diripient eos,et residui gentis meæ possidebunt illos. 10 Hoc eis eveniet pro superbia sua,quia blasphemaverunt et magnificati suntsuper populum Domini exercituum. 11 Horribilis Dominus super eos,et attenuabit omnes deos terræ:et adorabunt eum viri de loco suo,omnes insulæ gentium.
13 That hand shall stretch out northward, and make an end of Assyria; Nineve shall be left forlorn, a trackless desert.[3] 14 Flocks shall lie down there … all the wild things of earth; bittern and hedgehog make their dwelling in its doorways, bird-song there shall be in the windows, and raven perched on lintel; so ebbs the strength of it. 15 And this was the proud city that dwelt so free from alarms, thinking to herself, Here I stand, with no rival; a desert now, lair of the wild beasts! Hisses the passer-by in mockery, and shakes his fist.
13 Et extendet manum suam super aquilonem, et perdet Assur,et ponet speciosam in solitudinem,et in invium, et quasi desertum. 14 Et accubabunt in medio ejus greges, omnes bestiæ gentium;et onocrotalus et ericius in liminibus ejus morabuntur:vox cantantis in fenestra,corvus in superliminari,quoniam attenuabo robur ejus. 15 Hæc est civitas gloriosa habitans in confidentia,quæ dicebat in corde suo:Ego sum, et extra me non est alia amplius:quomodo facta est in desertum cubile bestiæ?omnis qui transit per eam sibilabit,et movebit manum suam.
[1] This passage appears to be addressed to the Jewish people scattered about the world. There is considerable obscurity about the sense, perhaps due to corruption of the text. ‘Ere resolve can bear fruit, like flying chaff passes the day’; the Latin version has, ‘Before the command brings forth the passing day like chaff’, which yields no appropriate sense. For ‘resolve’ cf. Jg. 5.15; the phrase is no doubt a proverb.
[2] In the Hebrew text, ‘the Cerethite race’.
[3] The Latin version, through a mis-reading of the text, gives ‘the fair one’ instead of ‘Nineve’. It looks as if there was some slight omission in verse 14; the word for ‘flock’ in the Hebrew is only used of domesticated animals.