Zephaniah 2:1-15
1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you.
3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.
4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.
6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.
7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORDa their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.
8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
9 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.
10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.
11 The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famishb all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
12 Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorantc and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.
15 This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
Zephaniah 2:1. Gather yourselves together, for fasting and prayer, oh nation not desired, whose practices are lothed and abhorred; a nation whom God will not own as his chosen people.
Zephaniah 2:3. It may be ye shall be hid from the general scourge. Jeremiah uses the same words in Jeremiah 36:3. The avenging arm becomes weak, when mortals are truly contrite.
Zephaniah 2:4. Gaza shall be forsaken Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Gaza was a primitive city, given to Judah. 1 Samuel 6:17 1 Samuel 6:17. It was a frontier town leading to Egypt, situate about sixty five miles south-west of Jerusalem, and one of the five cities occupied by the Philistines, the sore and bitter enemies of the Israelites. It stands pleasantly on an eminence. The beach being open, it has no harbour, and boats approach with difficulty. It threw off the Hebrew yoke in the weaker days of Jotham and Ahaz; but was reconquered by Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:8. Psammiticus, king of Egypt, took all the five cities of the Philistines; and about four years after the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar overran all Phœnicia, and ruined Egypt. So the word of the Lord was fulfilled, as in Jeremiah 25:17; Jeremiah 25:20, when he made all the kings of Philistia and the adjacent nations drink the cup of his wrath. The rest of the Philistines, says the prophet, shall perish. Amos 1:8; Ezekiel 25:15.
Zephaniah 2:5. Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast the Cherethites. These were colonies of Crete. 1 Samuel 30:14. The guards in David's court were raised out of those families. 2 Samuel 8:18.
Zephaniah 2:11. The Lord will famish all the gods of the earth. This is a fine satire on idolatry, and is illustrated by the custom of preparing every night for Bel, a supper, when the priests and their families came into the temple to partake of the feast. It is a most expressive prediction of the utter cessation and ruin of idolatry. Isaiah 2:18.
Zephaniah 2:12. Ye Ethiopians also shall be slain by my sword. This name in the Hebrew scriptures denotes all the coloured population, who are called Cushites. Many of these perished as allies of Egypt, and others from the Persian invasions. Jeremiah 46:2.
Zephaniah 2:13. He will make Nineveh a desolation. This is described by Nahum, and in the reflections on that prophet. The empire being destroyed, the poor had no bread, and birds of ill note inhabited the temples and the palaces. The Turkish city of Mosul is built on the western shore of the Tigris, leaving old Nineveh in ruins. A word here, oh infidel. How did the Hebrew prophets know this of Nineveh, of Babylon, and of Tyre? How did they know those facts, and facts of variations, that Jerusalem should only be “trodden down of the gentiles,” and that Egypt should only be “the basest of kingdoms?” Did they happen to guess well, to be lucky in conjectures? Aye, but one mishap would have ruined revelation. Take heed and beware: for they may guess well that all unbelievers shall have their portion in the lake “that burneth with fire and brimstone.”
REFLECTIONS.
The guilty nations of Phœnicia were alike idolaters, but idolaters who had the adjacent light of Israel. As they lived for ages in abominations, in wars, and in the effusion of innocent blood, the cup which the Lord had mingled must be given them to drink. The harvest grows ripe, and then the reapers are commanded to thrust in the sickle. The prophet exhorts them to meet for reflection, and for repentance, to ward off the blow by humiliations of heart.
It is remarkable that Judah, joining apostasy with sin, must be the first to drink the bitter cup. Then, as in a feast, the cup goes round. Nineveh falls, and falls to rise no more; the rejoicing city forever mourns. The whole belt of nations from Ammon to Moab, Philistia and Tyre, must drink the dregs of the red wine. How would it have been just to punish the one without the other, when neither fasting nor penitence, as formerly in Nineveh, had intervened. How then can hardened and rebellious men of our own times hope for ever to escape?