Zephaniah 2:9

2:4-15 Those are really in a woful condition who have the word of the Lord against them, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. God will restore his people to their rights, though long kept from them. It has been the common lot of God's people, in all ages, to be reproached and reviled. God shall be worshipped, not only by all Israel, and the strangers who join them, but by the heathen. Remote nations must be reckoned with for the wrongs done to God's people. The sufferings of the insolent and haughty in prosperity, are unpitied and unlamented. But all the desolations of flourishing nations will make way for the overturning Satan's kingdom. Let us improve our advantages, and expect the performance of every promise, praying that our Father's name may be hallowed every where, over all the earth.

Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The Lord here swears by himself, by his life; partly to show how provoked he was at, and how grievously he resented, the injuries done to his people; and partly to observe the certain fulfilment of what is after declared; and it might be depended upon it would surely be done, not only because of his word and oath, which are immutable; but because of his ability to do it, as "the Lord of hosts", of armies above and below; and because of the covenant relation that subsisted between him and Israel, being their God; and therefore would avenge the insults and injuries done them: surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah; that is, should be utterly destroyed, as these cities were; whose destruction is often made use of to express the utter ruin and destruction of any other people; otherwise it is not to be supposed that these countries were to be destroyed, or were destroyed, in like manner, by fire from heaven; the similitude lies in other things after expressed: even the breeding of nettles; or "left to nettles" (q); or rather to "thorns", as the Targum: and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it "the dryness of thorns", though to a very poor sense.

In general the meaning of the phrase is, that those countries should be very barren and desolate, like such places as are overrun with nettles, thorns, briers, and brambles; and these so thick, that there is no passing through them without a man's tearing his garments and his flesh: for Schultens (r), from the use of the word (s) in the Arabic language, shows that the words are to be rendered a "thicket of thorns which tear"; and cut the feet of those that pass through them; and even their whole body, as well as their clothes; and, wherever these grow in such plenty, it is a plain sign of a barren land, as well as what follow: and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation; signifying that the countries of Moab and Ammon should be waste, barren, and uncultivated, as the above places were, where nothing but nettles grew, as do in great abundance in desolate places; and where saltpits should be, or heaps of salt, as Kimchi interprets it; and wherever salt is found, as Pliny (t) says, it is a barren place, and produces nothing; though Herodotus (u) speaks of places where were hillocks of salt, and very fruitful; and where the people used salt in manuring and improving their ground; which must be accounted for by the difference of climate and soil: this passage is produced by Reland (w) to prove that the lake Asphaltites is not the place, as is commonly believed, where Sodom and Gomorrah stood; since those cities were not overflown, or immersed in and covered with water, but were destr

Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

As I live; the most solemn oath, fit for none but God himself to use: see Ezekiel 14:16 . Saith the Lord of hosts, who have all things at my disposal, and can arm all creatures against these proud revilers. The God of Israel, who by covenant am Israel’s God, and Israel is my people, in whose reproaches I am reproached. Shall be as Sodom: this is a proverbial speech in Scripture phrase to speak great destruction, as Isaiah 1:9 . Moab and Ammon were not destroyed by fire, as Sodom and Gomorrah; but the next words are an explication of these. The breeding of nettles; not cultivated, but run over with nettles, as if it were only to breed them. And salt-pits; a salt, dry, barren earth, fit only to dig salt out of. A perpetual desolation; never more to be manured and inhabited, or not for a long, a very long time. The residue; either the few left with Gedaliah, or the remnant that returned out of Babylon. Shall spoil them; provoked by the injuries of Moab and Ammon, shall take arms, overcome, and spoil them. Shall possess them; settle upon their lands, and dwell in those parts that are fit for habitation.

9. the breeding of nettles—or, the overspreading of nettles, that is, a place overrun with them. salt pits—found at the south of the Dead Sea. The water overflows in the spring, and salt is left by the evaporation. Salt land is barren (Jud 9:45; Ps 107:34, Margin). possess them—that is, their land; in retribution for their having occupied Judah's land.

Verse 9. - As I live . This is a common formulary to express certainty, God, as it were, pledging his existence to the truth of his declaration ( Deuteronomy 32:40 ; Isaiah 49:18 , etc.).. God calls himself, The Lord of hosts , therefore able to fulfil his threats; and the God of Israel , and therefore ready to punish wrongs done to his chosen people. As Sodom. This threat came home with particular force to the Moabites and Am. monites who dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, and had before their eyes this awful proof of the chastisement with which sin meets, and which had happened in the time of their forefather Lot. "There are no settled inhabitants," says Dr. Porter, writing of Moab, "but the hillsides and glens are studded with the ruins of ancient towns and villages. We at length pitched our tents by the lonely fountain of Heshbon. The site of this royal city is commanding - a rounded hilt on the edge of avast plateau, which extends on the south and east to the horizon, and on the west breaks down in steep slopes, jagged cliffs, and wild ravines, to the Dead Sea and Jordan valley, nearly four thousand feet below. The hill was the nucleus of the city. Its sides are covered with ruins, and remains of houses, temples, and other buildings are strewn over a considerable section of the adjoining plain. All is desolate. Not a building, and scarcely a fragment of a wall, is standing; yet, though deserted for centuries, it bears its ancient name.

I looked from Heshbon far and wide over the ancient territory of the Moabites, and saw desolation everywhere. The old towns and villages are all deserted and in ruins. In fact, there is not at this moment a single inhabited town or village in Moab, except Kerak, which stands on the extreme southern border. The sites of many were visible - grey mounds dotting the plain" ('Illust. of Bible Proph.,' pp. 24, 25). "The cities, towns, villages, are all in ruins. ... And no attempt is ever made to rebuild or repair; no man ventures to seek even a temporary abode among the ruined cities of Moab. The local Arab avoids the old sites, and seeks rest and security amid rocks and ravines; the powerful desert tribes sweep over the country periodically, and devour and destroy all in their track" (ibid., p. 28). Even the breeding of nettles; rather, a possession of nettles ; a place where nettles only grow. Vulgate, siccitas spinarum. The identification of the plant kharul is uncertain. In Job ( Job 30:7 ) it is represented as of sufficient growth to conceal fugitives; hence some think it is the wild mustard. Dr. Pusey, relying on a notice of Professor Palmer, considers it to be the mallow, which grows in rank luxuriance in Moab. The LXX., reading daleth instead of mem in the ἅπαξ λεγόμενον mimshaq , rendered "breeding," has Δαμασκὸς ἐκλελειμμένη , "Damascus shall be left." Salt pits.

9 . Jehovah’s oath by Himself, as I live , is rare in early writings, but very common in Ezekiel. Moab shall be as Sodom ] The vicinity of the two peoples or at least of Moab to the Dead Sea may have suggested the threat that the fate of the cities of the plain shall overtake them. the breeding of nettles ] a possession of nettles, which overgrow uncultivated places, Proverbs 24:31 ; Job 30:7 ; Isaiah 34:13 . and saltpits ] These were common around the Dead Sea: Deuteronomy 29:23 ; cf. Isaiah 13:19 ; Jeremiah 49:18 . The idea suggested is that of utter barrenness. To sow with salt was a symbolical act, signifying to doom to perpetual unfruitfulness and desolation ( Jdg 9:45 ). Ezekiel 47:11 predicts that, though the waters of the Dead Sea shall be sweetened when Israel is finally restored, the miry places and marshes about it shall be used for salt. shall spoil them ] i.e. make a spoil of them, viz. Moab and Ammon. There is a certain inconsistency in the verse, which is not to be removed by drawing a distinction between the country of Moab and Ammon and the peoples themselves, and fancying that the country shall share the fate of Sodom, while the peoples become the servants of Israel (Hitzig). It is better to consider the prophet’s predictions to be ideal, and to threaten two fates to Moab and Ammon, one, destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other, absorption by Israel. remnant of my people ] As R.V., my nation .