Zephaniah 3:9-13
The Message
God Is in Charge at the Center
9-13 “In the end I will turn things around for the people.
I’ll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted,
Words to address God in worship
and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel.
They’ll come from beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
they’ll come praying—
All my scattered, exiled people
will come home with offerings for worship.
You’ll no longer have to be ashamed
of all those acts of rebellion.
I’ll have gotten rid of your arrogant leaders.
No more pious strutting on my holy hill!
I’ll leave a core of people among you
who are poor in spirit—
What’s left of Israel that’s really Israel.
They’ll make their home in God.
This core holy people
will not do wrong.
They won’t lie,
won’t use words to flatter or seduce.
Content with who they are and where they are,
unanxious, they’ll live at peace.”
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Zephaniah 3:9-11
New International Version
Restoration of Israel’s Remnant
9 “Then I will purify the lips of the peoples,
that all of them may call(A) on the name of the Lord(B)
and serve(C) him shoulder to shoulder.
10 From beyond the rivers of Cush[a](D)
my worshipers, my scattered people,
will bring me offerings.(E)
11 On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame(F)
for all the wrongs you have done to me,(G)
because I will remove from you
your arrogant boasters.(H)
Never again will you be haughty
on my holy hill.(I)
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 3:10 That is, the upper Nile region
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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