CHAPTER 2 Dec. 16 
Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame, 2before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you, before the day of Yahweh’s anger comes on you. 3Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept His ordinances. Seek righteousness; seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger.
Against the Land of the Philistines 
4For Gaza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron will be rooted up. 5Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of Yahweh is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant. 6The sea coast will be pastures, with booths for shepherds and folds for flocks. 7The coast will be for the remnant of the house of Judah. They will find pasture there. They will lie down in the evening in the houses of Ashkelon, for Yahweh their God will visit them, and restore them.
Against Moab and Ammon 
 8I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves against their border. 9Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them, and the survivors of My nation will inherit them. 10This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Armies. 11Yahweh will leave them awestruck, for He will starve all the gods of the land. Men will worship Him, everyone from his place, even from every border of the nations. 
Against Cush 
12You Cushites also, you will be killed by My sword. 
Against Assyria 
13He will stretch out His hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness. 14Herds will lie down in the midst of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for He has laid bare the cedar beams. 15This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none besides me. How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

Commentary

2:3 Humility is a height which we should aspire to. This is a complete inversion of human thinking and values.
2:11 The pagan gods didn’t exist at all, but God speaks of starving them to death. He speaks as if they exist, and then shows by exercising His great power that effectively they don’t. God and His Son adopted the same approach with the demons or idols which were believed in. 
2:12 My sword- God used the swords of pagan nations to do His judgments, but effectively they were His swords. The fact God uses people to do His will doesn’t mean they are righteous. When bad things happen to us at the hands of evil people, we needn’t think that God has left us at the whim of the wicked and forgotten us. He is actually using those people according to His plan.
2:15 I am- An allusion to the meaning of ‘Yahweh’- ‘I am that I am’. Those who effectively deny the existence of God are themselves playing God, claiming that I am, rather than accepting that He is. Acceptance of the fact that Yahweh is the only “I am” means that we will not be “I” centred, but God centred.