Zephaniah 2:1-15

After this declaration, the prophet uttered his great appeal, first to the nation as a whole, calling on it to pull itself together before the opportunity for repentance should pass, before the hour of judgment should arrive.

As though conscious that that larger appeal would be unavailing, he turned to the remnant, to such as were the "meek of the earth," and urged them to renewed devotion. This appeal he enforced by argument, in which he again set forth the fact of the coming judgment on the nations, interspersing his declaration with words of hope concerning the remnant.

He first addressed the nations on the West, proclaiming that they would be utterly destroyed, and that in their place the remnant of the house of Judah would feed their flocks. He next turned to the nations on the East, declaring that they would become a perpetual desolation, and that the remnant would inhabit their lands.

He then turned to those on the South, announcing that they would be slain by the sword.

Finally, he declared that those on the North would be destroyed and their cities made a desolation.