Zephaniah 2:9

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 (Judges 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 countryof 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.