4 For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ash'kelon 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 Cher'ethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you till no inhabitant is left. 6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, meadows 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 pasture, and in the houses of Ash'kelon 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," says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomor'rah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste for ever. 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 scoffed and boasted against the people of the Lord of hosts. 11 The Lord will be terrible against them; yea, 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 Ethiopians, shall be slain by my sword. 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and he will make Nin'eveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert. 14 Herds shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the field; the vulture and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; the owl shall hoot in the window, the raven croak on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare. 15 This is the exultant city that dwelt secure, that said to herself, "I am and there is none else." What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Every one who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Zephaniah 2:4-15
Commentary on Zephaniah 2:4-15
(Read Zephaniah 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.