1Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame, 2before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you, before the day of Yahweh’s anger comes on you. 3Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger. 4For Gaza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron will be rooted up. 5Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! Yahweh’s word is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you until there is no inhabitant. 6The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks. 7The coast will be for the remnant of the house of Judah. They will find pasture. In the houses of Ashkelon, they will lie down in the evening, for Yahweh, their God, will visit them and restore them. 8I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their border. 9Therefore, as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them. 10This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Armies. 11Yahweh will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.
12You Cushites also, you will be killed by my sword.
13He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness. 14Herds will lie down in the middle of her, all kinds of animals. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar beams. 15This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss and shake their fists.
Zeph 2:13 “destroy Assyria” – Article on how God keeps His promises.
No prophecy illustrates God’s intention to keep His word any better than Zephaniah’s comforting word to the people of Judah that the Lord would soon destroy the cruel Assyrian empire; epitomized by the conquest of its dominant city, Nineveh.
The Assyrian empire had conquered and exiled the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and placed the southern Israelite kingdom of Judah under forced tribute from that time forward. The kings of Judah had paid enormous sums to the kings of Assyria to stave off the invaders for nearly a century. All the while the God of Israel, speaking through his prophets (e.g. Is 37:21-29), had encouraged His frightened people to place their trust in Him and promised that He would protect them and remove the Assyrian threat.
With the rise of good king Josiah to the throne of Judah in Jerusalem (640 B.C.), God brought a fresh word against Assyria through the lips of Zephaniah, promising to return the hated empire’s evil upon its own head and annihilate its chief city so thoroughly that there would be virtually nothing left but ruins. Zephaniah’s divine word was soon historically fulfilled when a Medo-Babylonian coalition brought the city to its knees in 612 B.C. The destruction was so complete that the city has remained abandoned to this day. It has indeed become a ‘heap of ruins’ and as ‘barren as the desert.’ (Zeph 2:13 Net Bible[RD1])
This stark fulfillment of judgment against this hated enemy nation was intended to drive the people of Judah to repent and return to their covenant keeping God, who was warning his own people of their impending doom for their sin and unfaithfulness (Zeph. 3:6, 7).
Tragically, God’s people refused to learn from the severe judgment God poured out upon Assyria, and in 586 B.C. Judah also suffered conquest (including the destruction of the temple) and exile at the hands of those same Babylonians. They too became a sterling illustration of how God does indeed keep His promises. The good news is that the God who keeps His word to discipline also keeps his promise to restore and renew according to his covenant. Almost exactly 70 years after being exiled, the Jews of Judah were allowed to return to Israel - just as God had promised (Jer 29:10). Like the people of Old Testament Israel, those who place their faith in the person and work of Christ can rely on His promise to save. -DP