Zephaniah 2 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Zephaniah 2

Judgment on Judah’s Enemies

2:1   Gather together, yes, gather,
    O shameless nation,
2   before the decree takes effect¹
    —before the day passes away like chaff—
  before there comes upon you
    the burning anger of the LORD,
  before there comes upon you
    the day of the anger of the LORD.
3   Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
    who do his just commands;²
  seek righteousness; seek humility;
    perhaps you may be hidden
    on the day of the anger of the LORD.
4   For Gaza shall be deserted,
    and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
  Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,
    and Ekron shall be uprooted.
5   Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,
    you nation of the Cherethites!
  The word of the LORD is against you,
    O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
    and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
6   And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    with meadows³ for shepherds
    and folds for flocks.
7   The seacoast shall become the possession
    of the remnant of the house of Judah,
    on which they shall graze,
  and in the houses of Ashkelon
    they shall lie down at evening.
  For the LORD their God will be mindful of them
    and restore their fortunes.
8   “I have heard the taunts of Moab
    and the revilings of the Ammonites,
  how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.
9   Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
  “Moab shall become like Sodom,
    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
  a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
    and a waste forever.
  The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10   This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they taunted and boasted
    against the people of the LORD of hosts.
11   The LORD will be awesome against them;
    for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
  and to him shall bow down,
    each in its place,
    all the lands of the nations.
12   You also, O Cushites,
    shall be slain by my sword.
13   And he will stretch out his hand against the north
    and destroy Assyria,
  and he will make Nineveh a desolation,
    a dry waste like the desert.
14   Herds shall lie down in her midst,
    all kinds of beasts;⁴
  even the owl and the hedgehog⁵
    shall lodge in her capitals;
  a voice shall hoot in the window;
    devastation will be on the threshold;
    for her cedar work will be laid bare.
15   This is the exultant city
    that lived securely,
  that said in her heart,
    “I am, and there is no one else.”
  What a desolation she has become,
    a lair for wild beasts!
  Everyone who passes by her
    hisses and shakes his fist.

Footnotes

[1] 2:2 Hebrew gives birth
[2] 2:3 Or who carry out his judgment
[3] 2:6 Or caves
[4] 2:14 Hebrew beasts of every nation
[5] 2:14 The identity of the animals rendered owl and hedgehog is uncertain

Commentary

v1: The call to Judah to repent, for the people to come together. Judah is the shameful, undesirable nation; both for the Lord God, and for the surrounding nations.

v2: There is urgency; repent before it is too late, the appointed time of judgment; God's wrath is about to fall.

v3: The command to seek the Lord, Amos 5.4; seeking righteousness and humility. The only shelter from God's judgment is God's mercy.

v4-7: The Philistines will also be judged. Here is a further indication of God's power, as He pronounces and then brings about, judgment upon a heathen nation.

v8: Moab and Ammon are also judged; they attacked and reproached the people of God, His "anointed one" (Hab 3.13).

v9: The God of Israel will judge those nations which attacked His people. They will be plundered by Israel.

Notice too that it is the remnant and survivors of Israel who will plunder their lands, for Israel is herself judged by God.

v10-11: The Lord is faithful to His own, He cannot deny Himself; He works on behalf of His people. His judgment is fair, "in return for..."

v12: Few words wasted on Cush (Ethiopia), slain by the sword of the Lord.

v13-15: Against Nineveh and Assyria; consistent with the prophecy of Nahum; the city of pride and complacency to be destroyed. For pride see also Tyre, Ezek 27.3; 28.3. There is also the specific prophecy that wild animals will dwell in the ruins of the city.