Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zephaniah 2:8
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.
8 11. Moab and Ammon
8. I have heard the reproach of Moab ] It is the Lord who speaks. The “reproach” or contempt of Moab is most likely that expressed in words, not that exhibited m insulting deeds; cf. Jer 48:27-29; Eze 35:12. Isa 16:6, “We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is very proud; the injuriousness of his boastings.”
revilings of the children of Ammon ] These revilings seem also to denote spoken obloquy (Eze 21:28), though the term is also used of opprobrious deeds, Num 15:30, Eze 20:27. Comp. Eze 25:3; Eze 25:6; Eze 25:8, “Because thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary, when it was profaned.”
Whereby they have reproached my people ] Rather: wherewith and they have magnified. The phrase have magnified themselves, &c. is scarcely explanatory either of “reproach” or “revilings,” but expresses an additional delinquency they have presumptuously violated the border of Israel and seized his territory. The charge is an old one against Ammon: Amo 1:13, “They have ripped up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border”; Jer 49:1, “Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Milcom possess Gad?” Moab also, whenever possible, overstepped what Israel regarded as its frontier and took possession of the territory of Reuben and Gad, as appears from the Moabite Stone. After Israel beyond Jordan was carried captive by Tiglath Pileser (b.c. 734), and especially after the fall of the northern kingdom (722), Moab and other peoples would naturally overflow the depopulated districts. For “ their border” Sept. has “ my borders”; cf. Jer 48:26; Jer 48:42, “he (Moab) hath magnified himself against the Lord.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I – Dionysius: God, Who know all things, I heard that is, have known within Me, in My mind, not anew but from eternity, and now I shew in effect that I know it; wherefore I say that I hear, because I act after the manner of one who perceiveth something anew. I, the just Judge, heard (see Isa 16:6; Jer 48:39; Eze 35:12-13). He was present and heard, even when, because He avenged not, He seemed not to hear, but laid it up in store with Him to avenge in the due time Deu 32:34-35.
The reproach of Moab and the reviling of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people – Both words, reproached, reviled, mean, primarily, cutting speeches; both are intensive, and are used of blaspheming God as unable to help His people, or reviling His people as forsaken by Him. If directed against man, they are directed against God through man. So David interpreted the taunt of Goliah, reviled the armies of the living God (1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36, 1Sa 17:45, coll. 10. 25), and the Philistine cursed David by his gods 1Sa 17:43. In a Psalm David complains, the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me (Psa 69:10 (9)); and a Psalm which cannot be later than David, since it declares the national innocency from idolatry, connects with their defeats, the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth (Psa 44:16 (17), joining the two words used here). The sons of Corah say, with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, where is thy God? Psa 42:10. So Asaph, The enemy hath reproached, the foolish people hath blasphemed Thy Name Psa 74:10, Psa 74:18; and, we are become a reproach to our neighbors. Wherefore should the pagan say, where is their God? render unto our neighbors – the reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord Psa 79:4, Psa 79:10, Psa 79:12. And Ethan, Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants – wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine Anointed Psa 89:50-51.
In history the repeated blasphemies of Sennacherib and his messengers are expressed by the same words. In earlier times the remarkable concession of Jephthah, Wilt not thou possess what Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? so whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out before us, them will we possess Jdg 11:24, implies that the Ammonites claimed their land as the gift of their god Chemosh, and that that war was, as that later by Sennacherib, waged in the name of the false god against the True.
The relations of Israel to Moab and Ammon have been so habitually misrepresented, that a review of those relations throughout their whole history may correct some wrong impressions. The first relations of Israel toward them were even tender. God reminded His people of their common relationship and forbade him even to take the straight road to his own future possessions, across their hand against their will. Distress them not, nor contend with them, it is said of each, for I will not give thee of their land for a possession, for I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession Deu 2:9, Deu 2:19. Idolaters and hostile as they were, yet, for their fathers sake, their title to their land had the same sacred sanction, as Israels to his. I, God says, have given it to them as a possession. Israel, to their own manifest inconvenience, went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, but came not within the border of Moab Jdg 11:18. By destroying Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, Israel removed formidable enemies, who had driven Moab and Ammon out of a portion of the land which they had conquered from the Zamzummim and Anakim Deu 2:10, Deu 2:20-21, and who threatened the remainder, Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites Num 21:25, Num 21:31.
Heshbon, Dibon, Jahaz, Medeba, Nophah were cities in the land of the Amorites, in which Israel dwelt. The exclusion of Moab and Ammon from the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation Deu 23:3 was not, of course, from any national antipathy, but intended to prevent a debasing intercourse; a necessary precaution against the sensuousness of their idolatries. Moab was the first in adopting the satanic policy of Balaam, to seduce Israel by sensuality to their idolatries; but the punishment was appointed to the partners of their guilt, the Midianites Num 25:17; 31, not to Moab. Yet Moab was the second nation, whose ambition God overruled to chasten His peoples idolatries. Eglon, king of Moab, united with himself Ammon and Amalek against Israel. The object of the invasion was, not the recovery of the country which Moab had lost to the Amorites but, Palestine proper.
The strength of Moab was apparently not sufficient to occupy the territory of Reuben. They took possession only of the city of palm trees Jdg 3:13; either the ruins of Jericho or a spot close by it; with the view apparently of receiving reinforcements or of securing their own retreat by the ford. This garrison enabled them to carry their forays over Israel, and to hold it enslaved for 18 years. The oppressiveness of this slavery is implied by the cry and conversion of Israel to the Lord, which was always in great distress. The memory of Eglon, as one of the oppressors of Israel, lived in the minds of the people in the days of Samuel 1Sa 12:9. In the end, this precaution of Moab turned to its own destruction, for, after Eglon was slain, Ephraim, under Ehud, took the fords, and the whole garrison, 10,000 of Moabs warriors, every strong man and every man of might Jdg 3:29, were intercepted in their retreat and perished. For a long time after this, we hear of no fresh invasion by Moab. The trans-Jordanic tribes remained in unquestioned possession of their land for 300 years Judg. 40:26, when Ammon, not Moab, raised the claim, Israel took away my land Jdg 11:13, although claiming the land down to the Arnon, and already being in possession of the southernmost portion of that land, Aroer, since Israel smote him from Aroer unto Minnith Jdg 11:33. The land then, according to a law recognized by nations, belonged by a twofold right to Israel;
(1) that it had been won, not from Moab, but from the conquerors of Moab, the right of Moab having passed to its conquerors ;
(2) that undisputed and unbroken possession for time immemorial as we say, 300 years, ought not to be disputed .
The defeat by Jephthah stilled them for near 50 years until the beginning of Sauls reign, when they refused the offer of the men of Jubesh-Gilead to serve them, and, with a mixture of insolence and savagery, annexed as a condition of accepting that entire submission, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, to lay it as a reproach to Israel 1Sa 11:1-2. The signal victory of Saul 1Sa 11:11 still did not prevent Ammon, as well as Moab, from being among the enemies whom Saul worsted . The term enemies implies that they were the assailants. The history of Naomi shows their prosperous condition, that the famine, which desolated Judah Rth 1:1, did not reach them, and that they were a prosperous land, at peace, at that time, with Israel. If all the links of the genealogy are preserved Rth 4:21-22, Jesse, Davids father, was grandson of a Moabitess, Ruth, and perhaps on this ground David entrusted his parents to the care of the king of Moab 1Sa 22:3-4.
Sacred history gives no hint, what was the cause of his terrible execution upon Moab. But a Psalm of David speaks to God of some blow, under which Israel had reeled. O God, Thou hast abhorred us, and broken us in pieces; Thou hast been wroth: Thou hast made the land to tremble and cloven it asunder; heal its breaches, for it shaketh; Thou hast showed Thy people a hard thing, Thou hast made it drink wine of reeling Psa 60:3-5; and thereon David expresses his confidence that God would humble Moab, Edom, Philistia. While David then was engaged in the war with the Syrians of Mesopotamia and Zobah (Psa 60:1-12 title), Moab must have combined with Edom in an aggressive war against Israel. The valley of salt , where Joab returned and defeated them, was probably within Judah, since the city of salt Jos 15:62 was one of the six cities of the wilderness. Since they had defeated Judah, they must have been overtaken there on their return .
Yet this too was a religious war. Thou, David says hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, to be raised aloft because of the truth Psa 60:4.
There is no tradition, that the kindred Psalm of the sons of Corah, Ps. 44 belongs to the same time. Yet the protestations to God of the entire absence of idolatry could not have been made at any time later than the early years of Solomon. Even were there Maccabee Psalms, the Maccabees were but a handful among apostates. They could not have pleaded the national freedom from unfaithfulness to God, nor, except in two subordinate and self-willed expeditions (1 Macc. 5:56-60, 67), were they defeated. Under the Persian rule, there were no armies nor wars; no immunity from idolatry in the later history of Judah. Judah did not in Hezekiahs time go out against Assyria; the one battle, in which Josiah was slain, ended the resistance to Egypt. Defeat was, at the date of this Psalm, new and surprising, in contrast with Gods deliverances of old Psa 44:1-3; yet the inroad, by which they had suffered, was one of spoiling Psa 44:10, Psa 44:12, not of subdual. Yet this too was a religious war, from their neighbors. They were slain for the sake of God Psa 44:22, they were covered with shame on account of the reproaches and blasphemies Psa 44:13-14 of those who triumphed over God, as powerless to help; they were a scorn and derision to the petty nations around them. It is a Psalm of unshaken faith amid great prostration: it describes in detail what the lxth Psalm sums up in single heavy words of imagery; but both alike complain to God of what His people had to suffer for His sake.
The insolence of Ammon in answer to Davids message of kindness to their new king, like that to the men of Jabesh Gilead, seems like a deliberate purpose to create hostilities. The relations of the previous king of Ammon to David, had been kind 2Sa 10:2-3, perhaps, because David being a fugitive from Israel, they supposed him to be Sauls enemy. The enmity originated, not with the new king, but with the princes of the children of Ammon 2Sa 10:3. Davids treatment of these nations 2Sa 8:2; 2Sa 12:31 is so unlike his treatment of any others whom he defeated, that it implies an internecine warfare, in which the safety of Israel could only be secured by the destruction of its assailants.
Mesha king of Moab records one war, and alludes to others, not mentioned in Holy Scripture. He says, that before his own time, Omri, king of Israel, afflicted Moab many days; that his son (Ahab) succeeded him, and he too said, I will afflict Moab. This affliction he explains to be that Omri possessed himself of the land of Medeba (expelling, it is implied, its former occupiers) and that (apparently, Israel) , dwelt therein, (in his days and in) the days of his son forty years. He was also in possession of Nebo, and the king of Israel (apparently Omri,) buil(t) Jahaz and dwelt in it, when he made war with me . Jahaz was near Dibon. In the time of Eusebius, it was still pointed out between Dibon and Medeba .
Mesha says, And I took it to annex it to Dibon. It could not, according to Mesha also, have been south of the Arnon, since Aroer lay between Dibon and the Arnon, and Mesha would not have annexed to Dibon a town beyond the deep and difficult ravine of the Arnon, with Aroer lying between them. It was certainly north of the Arnon, since Israel was not permitted to come within the border of Moab, but it was at Jahaz that Sihon met them and fought the battle in which Israel defeated him and gained possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok Num 21:23-25. It is said also that Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites from Aroer which is on the edge of the river Arnon , and the city which is in the river unto Gilead Jos 13:16, Jos 13:18. Aroer on the edge of the river Arnon, and the city which is in the river Arnon, again occur in describing the southern border of Reuben, among whose towns Jahaz is mentioned, with Beth-Baal-Meon and Kiriathaim, which have been identified.
The afflicting then of Moab by Omri, according to Mesha, consisted in this, that he recovered to Israel a portion of the allotment of Reuben, between 9 and 10 hours in length from north to south, of which, in the time of Israels weakness through the civil wars which followed on Jeroboams revolt, Moab must have dispossessed Reuben. Reuben had remained in undisturbed possession of it, from the first expulsion of the Amorites to the time at least of Rehoboam, about five hundred years. : The men of Gad still dwelt in Ataroth, Mesha says, from time immemorial.
The picture, which Mesha gives, is of a desolation of the southern portion of Reuben. For, I rebuilt, he says, Baal-Meon, Kiriathaim, Aroer, Beth-bamoth, Bezer, Beth-Diblathaim, Beth-baal-Meon. Of Beth-Bamoth, and probably of Bezer, Mesha says, that they had previously been destroyed . But Reuben would not, of course, destroy his own cities. They must then have been destroyed either by Meshas father, who reigned before him, when invading Reuben, or by Omri, when driving back Moab into his own land, and expelling him from these cities. Possibly they were dismantled only, since Mesha speaks only of Omris occupying Medeba, Ataroth, and Jahaz. He held these three cities only, leaving the rest dismantled, or dismantling them, unable to place defenders in them, and unwilling to leave them as places of aggression for Moab. But whether they ever were fortified towns at all, or how they were desolated, is mere conjecture. Only they were desolated in these wars.
But it appears from Meshas own statement, that neither Omri nor Ahab invaded Moab proper. For in speaking of his successful war and its results, he mentions no town south of the Arnon. He must have been a tributary king, but not a foot of his land was taken. The subsequent war was not a mere revolt, nor was it a mere refusal to pay tribute, of which Mesha makes no complaint. Nor could the tribute have been oppressive to him, since the spoils, left in the encampment of Moab and his allies shortly after his revolt, is evidence of such great wealth. The refusal to pay tribute would have involved nothing further, unless Ahaziah had attempted to enforce it, as Hezekiah refused the tribute to Assyria, but remained in his own borders. But Ahaziah, unlike his brother Jehoram who succeeded him, seems to have undertaken nothing, except the building of some ships for trade 2Ch 20:35-36. Meshas war was a renewal of the aggression on Reuben.
Heshbon is not mentioned, and therefore must, even after the war, have remained with Reuben.
Meshas own war was an exterminating war, as far as he records it. I fought against the city, (Ataroth), he says, and took it, and killed all the mighty of the city for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and of Moab; I fought against it (Nebo) from break of day until norm and took it, and slew all of it, 7,000 men; the ladies and maidens I devoted to Ashtar Chemosh; to be desecrated to the degradations of that sensual idolatry. The words too Israel perished with an everlasting destruction stand clear, whether they express Meshas conviction of the past or his hope of the future.
The war also, on the part of Moab, was a war of his idol Chemosh against God. Chemosh, from first to last, is the agent. Chemosh was angry with his land; Chemosh (was pleased) with it in my days; I killed the mighty for the well-pleasing of Chemosh; I took captive thence all ( …)and dragged it along before Chemosh at Kiriath; Chemosh said to me, Go and take Nebo against Israel; I devoted the ladies and maidens to Ashtar-Chemosh; I took thence the vessels of ihvh and dragged them before Chemosh; Chemosh drove him (the king of Israel) out before (my face); Chemosh said to me, Go down against Horonaim. Chemosh ( …)it in my days.
Contemporary with this aggressive war against Israel must have been the invasion by the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, the great multitude from beyond the sea, from Syria 2Ch 20:1-2, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, which brought such terror upon Judah. It preceded the invasion of Moab by Jehoshaphat in union with Jehoram and the king of Edom. For the invasion of Judah by Moab and Ammon took place, while Ahabs son, Ahaziah, was still living. For it was after this, that Jehoshaphat joined with Ahaziah in making ships to go to Tarshish . But the expedition against Moab was in union with Jehoram who succeeded Ahaziah. The abundance of wealth which the invaders of Judah brought with them, and the precious jewels with which they had adorned themselves, show that this was no mere marauding expedition, to spoil; but that its object was, to take possession of the land or at least of some portion of it.
They came by entire surprise on Jehoshaphat, who heard of them first when they were at Hazazon-Tamar or Engedi, some 36 12 miles from Jerusalem . He felt himself entirely unequal to meet them, and cast himself upon God. There was a day of public humiliation of Judah at Jerusalem. Out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord 2Ch 20:4. Jehoshaphat, in his public prayer, owned, we have no might against this great company which cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee 2Ch 20:13. He appeals to God, that He had forbidden Israel to invade Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, so that they turned away from them and destroyed them not; and now these rewarded them by coming to cast us out of Thy possession which Thou hast given us to inherit 2Ch 20:10. One of the sons of Asaph foretold to the congregation, that they might go out fearlessly, for they should not have occasion to fight.
A Psalm, ascribed to Asaph, records a great invasion, the object of which was the extermination of Israel. They have said; Come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance Psa 83:4. It had been a secret confederacy. They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people Psa 83:3. It was directed against God Himself, that is, His worship and worshipers. For they have taken counsel in heart together; against Thee do they make a covenant Psa 83:5. It was a combination of the surrounding petty nations; Tyre on the north, the Philistines on the west; on the south the Amalekites, Ishmaelites, Hagarenes; eastward, Edom, Gebal, Moab, Ammon. But its most characteristic feature was, that Assur (this corresponds with no period after Jehoshaphat) occupies a subordinate place to Edom and Moab, putting them forward and helping them. Assur also, Asaph says, is joined with them; they have become an arm to the children of Lot Psa 83:8. This agrees with the description, there is come against thee a great multitude from beyond the sea, from Syria.
Scripture does not record, on what ground the invasion of Moab by Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, with the tributary king of Edom, was directed against Moab proper; but it was the result doubtless of the double war of Moab against Reuben and against Judah. It was a war, in which the strength of Israel and Moab was put forth to the utmost. Jehoram had mustered all Israel 2Ki 3:6; Moab had gathered all who had reached the age of manhood and upward, everyone who girded on a girdle and upward 2Ki 3:21. The three armies, which had made a seven days circuit in the wilderness, were on the point of perishing by thirst and falling into the hands of Moab, when Elisha in Gods name promised them the supply of their want, and complete victory over Moab. The eager cupidity of Moab, as of many other armies, became the occasion of his complete overthrow. The counsel with which Elisha accompanied his prediction, ye shall smite every fenced city and every choice city, and every good tree ye shall fell, and all springs of water ye shall stop up, and every good piece of land ye shall waste with stones 2Ki 3:19, was directed, apparently, to dislodge an enemy so inveterate. For water was essential to the fertility of their land and their dwelling there. We hear of no special infliction of death, like what Mesha records of himself. The war was ended by the king of Moabs sacrificing the heir-apparent of the king of Edom , which naturally created great displeasure against Israel, in whose cause Edom thus suffered, so that they departed to their own land and finally revolted.
Their departure apparently broke up the siege of Ar and the expedition. Israel apparently was not strong enough to carry on the war without Edom, or feared to remain with their armies away from their own land, as in the time of David, of which Edom might take the advantage. We know only the result.
Moab probably even extended her border to the south by the conquest of Horonaim .
After this, Moab is mentioned only on occasion of the miracle of the dead man, to whom God gave life, when cast into Elishas sepulchre, as he came in contact with his bones. Like the Bedouin now, or the Amalekites of old, the bands of Moab came into the land, as the year came 2Ki 13:20. Plunder, year by year, was the lot of Israel at the hands of Moab.
On the east of Jordan, Israel must have remained in part (as Mesha says of the Gadites of Arocr) in their old border. For after this, Hazael, in Jehus reign, smote Israel from Aroer which is by the river Arnon 2Ki 10:33; and at that time probably Amman joined with him in the exterminating war in Gilead, destroying life before it had come into the world, that they might enlarge their border . Jeroboam ii, 825 b.c.; restored Israel to the sea of the plain 2 Kings 16:25, that is, the dead sea, and, (as seems probable from the limitation of that term in Deuteronomy, under Ashdoth-Pisgah eastward, Deu 3:17) to its northern extremity, lower in latitude than Heshbon, yet above Nebo and Medeba, lcaving accordingly to Moab all which it had gained by Mesha. Uzziah, a few years later, made the Ammonites tributaries 2Ch 26:8 810 b.c. But 40 years later 771 b.c., Pul, and, after yet another 30 years, 740, Tiglath-pileser having carried away the trans-Jordanic tribes 1Ch 5:26, Moab again possessed itself of the whole territory of Reuben. Probably before.
For 726 b.c., when Isaiah foretold that the glory of Moab should be contemned with all that great multitude Isa 16:14, he hears the wailing of Moab throughout all his towns, and names all those which had once been Reubens and of whose conquest or possession Moab had boasted Isa 15:1-2, Isa 15:4, Nebo, Medeba, Dibon, Jahaz, Baiith; as also those not conquered then Isa 15:4-5, Isa 15:1, Heshbon, Elealeh; and those of Moab proper, Luhith, Horonaim, and its capitals, Ar-Moab and Kir-Moab. He hears their sorrow, sees their desolation and bewails with their weeping Isa 16:9. He had prophesied this before , and now, three years Isa 16:13-14 before its fulfillment by Tiglath-Pileser, he renews it. This tender sorrow for Moab has more the character of an elegy than of a denunciation; so that he could scarcely lament more tenderly the ruin of his own people.
He mentions also distinctly no sin there except pride. The pride of Moab seems something of common notoriety and speech. We have heard Isa 16:6. Isaiah accumulates words, to express the haughtiness of Moab; the pride of Moab; exceeding proud; his pride and his haughtiness and his wrath, pride overpassing bounds, upon others. His words seem to be formed so as to keep this one bared thought before us, as if we were to say pride, prideful, proudness, pridefulness; and withal the unsubstantialness of it all, the unsubstantiality of his lies. Pride is the source of all ambition; so Moab is pictured as retiring within her old bounds, the fords of Arnon, and thence asking for aid; her petition is met by the counter-petition, that, if she would be protected in the day of trouble, the out-casts of Israel might lodge with her now: be thou a covert to her from the face of the spoiler Isa 16:4-5. The prophecy seems to mark itself out as belonging to a time, after the two and a half tribes had been desolated, as stragglers sought refuge in Moab, and when a severe infliction was to come on Moab: the Isa 16:14 remnant shall be small, small not great.
Yet Moab recovered this too. It was a weakening of the nation, not its destruction. Some 126 years after the prophecy of Isaiah, 30 years after the prophecy of Zephaniah, Moab, in the time of Jeremiah, was in entire prosperity, as if no visitation had ever come upon her. What Zephaniah says of the luxuriousness of his people, Jeremiah says of Moab; Moab is one at ease from his youth; he is resting on his lees; and he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity Jer 48:11. They say, We are mighty and strong men for the war Jer 48:14. Moab was a strong staff, a beautiful rod Jer 48:17; he magnified himself against the Lord Jer 48:26; Israel was a derision to him Jer 48:27; he skipped for joy at his distress. Jeremiah repeats and even strengthens Isaiahs description of his pride; his pride, proud Jer 48:29, he repeats, exceedingly; his loftiness, again his pride, his arrogancy, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Its strongholds Jer 48:18 were unharmed; all its cities, far and near, are counted one by one, in their prosperity Jer 48:1, Jer 48:3, Jer 48:5, Jer 48:21-24; its summer-fruits and vintage were plenteous; its vines, luxuriant; all was joy and shouting. Whence should this evil come? Yet so it was with Sodom and Gomorrah just before its overthrow. It was, for beauty, a paradise of God; well-watered everywhere; as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt Gen 13:10. In the morning the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of the furnace Gen 19:28. The destruction foretold by Jeremiah is far other than the affliction spoken of by Isaiah. Isaiah prophesies only a visitation, which should reduce her people: Jeremiah foretells, as did Zephaniah, captivity and the utter destruction of her cities. The destruction foretold is complete. Not of individual cities only, but of the whole he saith, Moab is destroyed Jer 48:4. The spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape, and the valley shall perish and the high places shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken Jer 48:8.
Moab himself was to leave his land. Flee, save your lives, and ye shall be like the heath in the wilderness. Chemosh shall go forth into captivity; his priests and his princes together. Give pinions unto Moab, that it may flee and get away, and her cities shall be a desolation, for there is none to dwell therein Jer 17:6. It was not only to go into captivity, but its home was to be destroyed. I will send to her those who shall upheave her, and they shall upheave her, and her vessels they shall empty, all her flagons (all that aforetime contained her) they shall break in pieces Jer 48:12. Moab is destroyed and her cities Jer 48:15; the spoiler of Moab is come upon her; he hath destroyed the strongholds Jer 48:18. The subsequent history of the Moabites is in the words, Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, dwellers of Moab, and be like a dove which nesteth in the sides of the mouth of the pit Jer 48:28. The purpose of Moab and Ammon against Israel which Asaph complains of, and which Mesha probably speaks of, is retorted upon her. In Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come and let us cut it off from being a nation. Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord Jer 48:2, Jer 48:42.
Whence should this evil come? They had, with the Ammonites, been faithful servants of Nebuchadnezzar against Judah 2Ki 24:2. Their concerted conspiracy with Edom, Tyre, Zidon, to which they invited Zedekiah (Jer 27:2 following), was dissolved. Nebuchadnezzars march against Judaea did not touch them, for they skipped with joy Jer 48:27 at Israels distresses. The connection of Baalis, king of the Ammonites, with Ishmael Jer 40:14; Jer 41:10 the assassin of Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land 2Ki 25:22-26; Jer 40:6; Jer 41:1 out of their own people, probably brought down the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar. For Chaldaeans too were included in the slaughter Jer 41:3. The blow seems to have been aimed at the existence of the people, for the murder of Gedaliah followed upon the rallying of the Jews out of all the places whither they had been driven Jer 40:12. It returned on Ammon itself; and on Moab who probably on this, as on former occasions, was associated with it. The two nations, who had escaped at the destruction of Jerusalem, were warred upon and subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the 23d year of his reign , the 5th after the destruction of Jerusalem.
And then probably followed that complete destruction and disgraced end, in which Isaiah, in a distinct prophecy, sees Moab trodden down by God as the heap of straw is trodden down in the waters (the kethib) of the dunghill, and he (Moab) stretcheth forth his hands in the midst thereof, as the swimmer stretcheth forth his hands to swim, and He, God, shall bring down his pride with the treacheries of his hands Isa 25:10-12. It speaks much of the continued hostility of Moab, that, in prophesying the complete deliverance for which Israel waited, the one enemy whose destruction is foretold, is Moab and those pictured by Moab. We have waited for Him and He will save us – For in this mountain (Zion) shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under Him Isa 25:9-10.
After this, Moab, as a nation, disappears from history. Israel, on its return from the captivity, was again enticed into idolatry by Moabite and Anmonite wives, as well as by those of Ashdod and others Neh 13:23-26, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Egyptians, Amorites Ezr 9:1. Sanballat also, who headed the opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem, was a Moabite Neh 2:10; Neh 4:1-8; Tobiah, an Ammonite Neh 4:2, Neh 4:9. Yet it went no further than intrigue and the threat of war. They were but individuals, who cherished the old hostility. In the time of the Maccabees, the Ammonites, not Moab, with a mighty power and much people were in possession of the Reubenite cities to Jazar (1 Macc. 5:6, 8). It was again an exterminating war, in which the Jews were to be destroyed (1 Macc. 5:9, 10, 27). After repeated defeats by Judas Maccabaeus, the Ammonites hired the Arabians (1 Macc. 5:39) (not the Moabites) to help them, and Judas, although victorious, was obliged to remove the whole Israelite population, all that were in the land of Gilead, from the least unto the greatest, even their wives, and their children, and their stuff, a very great host, to the end they might come into the land of Judaea (1 Macc. 5:45). The whole population was removed, obviously lest, on the withdrawal of Judas army, they should be again imperiled. As it was a defensive war against Ammon, there is no mention of any city, south of the Arnon, in Moabs own territory. It was probably with the view to magnify descendants of Lot, that Josephus speaks of the Moabites as being even yet a very great nation . Justins account, that there is even now a great multitude of Ammonites, does not seem to me to imply a national existence. A later writer says , not only the Edomites but the Ammonites and Moabites too are included in the one name of Arabians.
Some chief towns of Moab became Roman towns, connected by the Roman road from Damascus to Elath. Ar and Kir-Moab in Moab proper became Areopolis and Charac-Moab, and, as well as Medeba and Heshbon in the country which had been Reubens, preserve traces of Roman occupancy. As such, they became Christian Sees. The towns, which were not thus revived as Roman, probably perished at once, since they bear no traces of any later building.
The present condition of Moab and Ammon is remarkable in two ways;
(1) for the testimony which it gives of its former extensive population;
(2) for the extent of its present desolation.
How fearfully, says an accurate and minute observer , is this residence of old kings and their land wasted! It gives a vivid idea of the desolation, that distances are marked, not by villages which he passes but by ruins . : From these ruined places, which lay on our way, one sees how thickly inhabited the district formerly was. Yet the ground remained fruitful.
It was partly abandoned to wild plants, the wormwood and other shrubs ; partly, the artificial irrigation, essential to cultivation in this land, was destroyed ; here and there a patch was cultivated; the rest remained barren, because the crops might become the prey of the spoiler , or the thin population had had no heart to cultivate it.
A list of 33 destroyed places which still retained their names, was given to Seetzen , of which many were cities in times of old, and beside these, a great number of other wasted villages. One sees from this, that, in the days of old, this land was extremely populated and flourishing, and that destructive wars alone could produce the present desolation. And thereon he adds the names of 40 more ruined places. Others say : The whole of the fine plains in this quarter (the south of Moab) are covered with sites of towns, on every eminence or spot convenient for the construction of one; and as all the land is capable of rich cultivation, there can be no doubt that this country, now so deserted, once presented a continued picture of plenty and fertility. : Every knoll (in the highlands of Moab) is covered with shapeless ruins. – The ruins consist merely of heaps of squared and well-fitting stones, which apparently were erected without mortar. : One description might serve for all these Moabite ruins. The town seems to have been a system of concentric circles, built round a central fort, and outside the buildings the rings continue as terrace-walks, the gardens of the old city. The terraces are continuous between the twin hillocks and intersect each other at the foot . Ruined villages and towns, broken walls that once enclosed gardens and vineyards, remains of ancient roads; everything in Moab tells of the immense wealth and population, which that country must have once enjoyed.
The like is observed of Ammon . His was direct hatred of the true religion. It was not mere exultation at the desolation of an envied people. It was hatred of the worship of God. Thus saith the Lord God; Because thou saidst, Aha, against My sanctuary, because it was profaned Eze 25:3; and against the land of Israel, because it was desolated; and against the house of Judah, because they went into captivity. The like temper is shown in the boast, Because that Moab and Seir do say; Behold the house of Judah is like unto the pagan Eze 25:8, that is, on a level with them.
Forbearing and long-suffering as Almighty God is, in His infinite mercy, He does not, for that mercys sake, bear the direct defiance of Himself. He allows His creatures to forget Him, not to despise or defy Him. And on this ground, perhaps, He gives to His prophecies a fulfillment beyond what the letter requires, that they may be a continued witness to Him. The Ammonites, some 1600 years ago, ceased to be remembered among the nations. But as Nineveh and Babylon, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by being what they are, are witnesses to His dealings, so the way in which Moab and Ammon are still kept desolate is a continued picture of that first desolation. Both remain rich, fertile; but the very abundance of their fertility is the cause of their desolation. God said to Ammon, as the retribution on his contumely: therefore, behold, I give thee to the children of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and place their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit and they shall drink thy milk; and I will make Rabbah a dwelling-place of camels, and the children of Ammon a couchingplace for flocks Eze 25:4-5.
Of Moab He says also, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, unto the men of the East with the Ammonites Eze 25:8, Eze 25:10. And this is an exact description of the condition of the land at this day. All travelers describe the richness of the soil. We have seen this as to Moab. But the history is one and the same. One of the most fertile regions of the world, full of ruined towns, destitute of villages or fixed habitations, or security of property, its inhabitants ground down by those, who have succeeded the Midianites and the Amalekites, the children of the East. Thou canst not find a country like the Belka, says the Arabic proverb , but the inhabitants cultivate patches only of the best soil in that territory when they have a prospect of being able to secure the harvest against the invasion of enemies. We passed many ruined cities, said Lord Lindsay , and the country has once been very populous, but, in 35 miles at least, we did not see a single village; the whole country is one vast pasturage, overspread by the flocks and herds of the Anezee and Beni Hassan Bedouins.
The site of Rabbath Amman was well chosen for strength. Lying in a long valley through which a stream passed, the city of waters could not easily be taken, flor its inhabitants compelled to surrender from hunger or thirst. Its site, as the eastern bound of Peraea , the last place where water could be obtained and a frontier fortress against the wild tribes beyond , marked it for preservation. In Greek times, the disputes for its possession attest the sense of its importance. In Roman, it was one of the chief cities of the Decapolis, though its population was said to be a mixture of Egyptians, Arabians, Phoenicians . The coins of Roman Emperors to the end of the second century contain symbols of plenty, where now reigns utter desolation .
In the 4th century, it and two other now ruined places, Bostra and Gerasa, are named as most carefully and strongly walled. It was on a line of rich commerce filled with strong places, in sites well selected for repelling the invasions of the neighboring nations . Centuries advanced. It was greatly beautified by its Roman masters. The extent and wealth of the Roman city are attested both by the remains of noble edifices on both sides of the stream, and by pieces of pottery, which are the traces of ancient civilized dwelling, strewed on the earth two miles from the city. : At this place, Amman, as well as Gerasa and Gamala, three colonial settlements within the compass of a days journey from one another, there were five magnificent theaters and one ampitheater, besides temples, baths, aqueducts, naumachia, triumphal arches. : Its theater was the largest in Syria; its colonnade had at least 50 columns. The difference of the architecture shows that its aggrandizement must have been the work of different centuries: its castle walls are thick, and denote a remote antiquity; large blocks of stone are piled up without cement and still hold together as well as if recently placed. It is very probably the same which Joab called David to take, after the city of waters had been taken; within it are traces of a temple with Corinthian columns, the largest seen there, yet not of the best Roman times.
Yet Amman, the growth of centuries, at the end of our 6th century was destroyed. For it was desolate before Islam, a great ruin. : No where else had we seen the vestiges of public magnificence and wealth in such marked contrast with the relapse into savage desolation. But the site of the old city, so well adapted either for a secure refuge for its inhabitants or for a secure depository for their plunder, was, on that very ground, when desolated of its inhabitants, suited for what God, by Ezekiel, said it would become, a place, where the men of the East should stable their flocks and herds, secure from straying. What a change, that its temples, the center of the worship of its successive idols, or its theaters, its places of luxury or of pomp, should be stables for that drudge of man, the camel, and the stream which gave it the proud title of city of waters their drinking trough! And yet of the cities whose destruction is prophesied, this is foretold of Rabbah alone, as in it alone is it fulfilled! Ammon, says Lord Lindsay , was situated on both sides of the stream; the dreariness of its present aspect is quite indescribable. It looks like the abode of death; the valley stinks with dead camels; one of them was rotting in the stream; and though we saw none among the ruins, they were absolutely covered in every direction with their dung. Bones and skulls of camels were mouldering there (in the area of the ruined theater) and in the vaulted galleries of this immense structure. It is now quite deserted, except by the Bedouins, who water their flocks at its little river, descending to it by a wady, nearly opposite to a theater (in which Dr. Mac Lennan saw great herds and flocks) and by the akiba.
Re-ascending it, we met sheep and goats by thousands, and camels by hundreds. Another says , The space intervening between the river and the western hills is entirely covered with the remains of buildings, now only used for shelter for camels and sheep. Buckingham mentions incidentally, that he was prevented from sleeping at night by the bleating of flocks and the neighing of horses, barking of dogs etc. Another speaks of a small stone building in the Acropolis now used as a shelter for flocks. While he was traversing the ruins of the city, the number of goats and sheep, which were driven in among them, was exceedingly annoying, however remarkable, as fulfilling the prophecies . Before six tents fed sheep and camels . Ezekiel points just to these Eze 20:5, which passage Seetzen cites. And in fact the ruins are still used for such stalls.
The prophecy is the very opposite to that upon Babylon, though both alike are prophecies of desolation. Of Babylon Isaiah prophesies, It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it bedwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make fold there, but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and the ostriches shall dwell there, and the jackals shall cry in their desolate houses, and howling creatures in their pleasant palaces Isa 13:20. And the ruins are full of wild beasts . Of Rabbah, Ezekiel prophesied that it should be a possession for the men of the East, and I Eze 25:4-5, God says, will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place for flocks; and mans lawlessness fulfills the will and word of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zep 2:8-10
I have heard the reproach of Moab.
The persecution of the good
I. That good men are often subject to annoyances from the ungodly world. I have heard the reproach [abuse] of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people [abused My nation], and magnified themselves against their border. These people, the Moabites and the Ammonites, were constantly annoying and abusing the chosen people. In the time of Moses, Balak, the king of the Moabites, sought to destroy the Israelites by means of Balaams curses (Num 22:1-41.). And in the time of the Judges, both peoples endeavoured to oppress Israel (Jdg 3:12; Jdg 10:7). The charge here probably refers to the hostile attitude assumed by both tribes at all times towards the people of God. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah charged them with annoying them (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:29). The hostile conduct of Moab and Ammon towards Israel is only a specimen and an illustration of the antagonism of wicked men towards the truly pious. They reproach them, they charge them with superstition, fanaticism, cant, hypocrisy, etc. The best men, the men of whom the world is not worthy, are always persecuted.
II. That these annoyances escape not the notice of God. I have heard the reproach.
1. Gods attention to the minute concerns of human life.
2. Gods special interest in His people (Jer 23:23).
III. That God will not fail to chastise the authors of such annoyances. 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. Mark–
1. The doom of those reproachers. They shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah.
2. The cause of their doom. This they shall have for their pride. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. I have heard the reproach of Moab] God punished them for the cruel part they had taken in the persecutions of the Jews; for when they lay under the displeasure of God, these nations insulted them in the most provoking manner. See on Am 1:13, and the parallel texts in the margin. (Amo 1:13, and Gen 19:25; Deu 29:23; Isa 13:19; Isa 34:13; Jer 49:18; Jer 50:40)
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have heard: either the prophet for himself, or for the people, speaks this; or else, more likely, in the name of God, assures the Jews that God had heard, observed, resented, and was highly displeased with that he heard.
The reproach of Moab; a people of near kin to the Jews, born of Lots daughter, seated eastward of Canaan, upon the Dead Sea and Jordan, a powerful people, and as proud; whose pride broke out on all occasions against the Jews, as appears from first to last: Isa 16:6, and Jer 48:29,30, brand them as very proud.
The revilings of the children of Ammon; a people as near as Moab to Jewish blood, and as bitter against them, Neh 4:2,3, bitter scoffers and jeerers.
Whereby they have reproached my people; either in the war, or at the taking of Jerusalem, or when the captive Jews were led by their borders into captivity: Eze 25:3 puts these all together.
Magnified themselves; either boasting what they themselves were, or what they would have done, or what they will do against Israel, recovering their old pretended right and estate.
Against their border; invading their frontiers, and spoiling them with insolence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. I have heardA seasonableconsolation to Judah when wantonly assailed by Moab and Ammon withimpunity: God saith, “I have heard it all, though I might seemto men not to have observed it because I did not immediately inflictpunishment.”
magnified themselvesactedhaughtily, invading the territory of Judah (Jer 48:29;Jer 49:1; compare Zep 2:10;Psa 35:26; Oba 1:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon,…. Two people that descended from Lot, through incest with his daughters; and are therefore mentioned together, as being of the same cast and complexion, and bitter enemies to the people of the Jews; whom they reproached and reviled, for the sake of their religion, because they adhered to the word and worship of God: this they did when the Jews were most firmly attached to the service of the true God; and the Lord heard it, and took notice of it; and put it down in the book of his remembrance, to punish them for it in due time; even he who hears, and sees, and knows all things:
whereby they have reproached my people; whom he had chosen, and avouched to be his people; and who were called by his name, and called on his name, and worshipped him, and professed to be his people, and to serve and obey him; and as such, and because they were the people of God, they were reproached by them; and hence it was so resented by the Lord; and there being such a near relation between God and them, he looked upon the reproaches of them as reproaches of himself:
and magnified [themselves] against their border; either they spoke reproachfully of the land of Israel, and the borders of it, and especially of the inhabitants of the land, and particularly those that bordered upon them; or they invaded the borders of their land, and endeavoured to add it to theirs; or as the Jews were carried captive by the Chaldeans, as they passed by the borders of Moab and Ammon, they insulted them, and jeered them, and expressed great pleasure and joy in seeing them in such circumstances; see Eze 25:3. Jarchi represents the case thus; when the children of Israel went into captivity to the land of the Chaldeans, as they passed by the way of Ammon and Moab, they wept, and sighed, and cried; and they distressed them, and said, what do you afflict yourselves for? why do ye weep? are not you going to the house of your father, beyond the river where your fathers dwelt of old? thus jeering them on account of Abraham’s being of Ur of the Chaldees.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The judgment upon Joab and Ammon. – Zep 2:8. “I have heard the abuse of Moab, and the revilings of the sons of Ammon, who have abused my nation, and boasted against its boundary. Zep 2:9. Therefore, as I live, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Yea, Moab shall become like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrha, an inheritance of nettles and salt-pits, and desert for ever. The remnant of my nation will plunder them, the residue of my nation will inherit them. Zep 2:10. Such to them for their pride, that they have despised and boasted against the nation of Jehovah of hosts.” The threat now turns from the Philistines in the west to the two tribes to the east, viz., the Moabites and Ammonites, who were descended from Lot, and therefore blood-relations, and who manifested hostility to Israel on every possible occasion. Even in the time of Moses, the Moabitish king Balak sought to destroy Israel by means of Balaam’s curses (Numbers 22), for which the Moabites were threatened with extermination (Num 24:17). In the time of the judges they both attempted to oppress Israel (Jdg 3:12. and Jdg 10:7.; cf. 1Sa 11:1-5 and 2 Samuel 10-12), for which they were severely punished by Saul and David (1Sa 14:47, and 2Sa 8:2; 2Sa 12:30-31). The reproach of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, which Jehovah had heard, cannot be taken, as Jerome, Rashi, and others suppose, as referring to the hostilities of those tribes towards the Judaeans during the Chaldaean catastrophe; nor restricted, as v. Clln imagines, to the reproaches heaped upon the ten tribes when they were carried away by the Assyrians, since nothing is know of any such reproaches. The charge refers to the hostile attitude assumed by both tribes at all times towards the nation of God, which they manifested both in word and deed, as often as the latter was brought into trouble and distress. Compare Jer 48:26-27; and for giddeph , to revile or blaspheme by actions, Num 15:30; Eze 20:27; also for the fact itself, the remarks on Amos 1:13-2:3. , they did great things against their (the Israelites’) border (the suffix in g e bhulam , their border, refers to amm , my people). This great doing consisted in their proudly violating the boundary of Israel, and endeavouring to seize upon Israelitish territory (cf. Amo 1:13). Pride and haughtiness, or high-minded self-exaltation above Israel as the nation of God, is charged against the Moabites and Ammonites by Isaiah and Jeremiah also, as a leading feature in their character (cf. Isa 16:6; Isa 25:11; Jer 48:29-30). Moab and Ammon are to be utterly exterminated in consequence. The threat of punishment is announced in Zep 2:8 as irrevocable by a solemn oath. It shall happen to them as to Sodom and Gomorrha. This simile was rendered a very natural one by the situation of the two lands in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea. It affirms the utter destruction of the two tribes, as the appositional description shows. Their land is to become the possession of nettles, i.e., a place where nettles grow. Mimshaq , hap leg., from the root mashaq , which was not used, but from which mesheq in Gen 15:2 is derived. Charul : the stinging nettle (see at Job 30:7), which only flourishes in waste places. Mikhreh melach : a place of salt-pits, like the southern coast of the Dead Sea, which abounds in rock-salt, and to which there is an allusion in the threat of Moses in Deu 29:22. “A desert for ever:” the emphasis lies upon ad olam (for ever) here. The people, however, i.e., the Moabites and Ammonites themselves, will be taken by the people of Jehovah, and be made their possession. The suffixes attached to and can only refer to the people of Moab and Ammon, because a land turned into an eternal desert and salt-steppe would not be adapted for a nachalah (possession) for the people of God. The meaning is not, they will be their heirs through the medium of plunder, but they will make them into their own property, or slaves (cf. Isa 14:2; Isa 61:5). is with the suffix of the first person, only one of the two being written. In Zep 2:10 the threat concludes with a repetition of the statement of the guilt which is followed by such a judgment.
The fulfilment or realization of the threat pronounced upon Philistia, Moab, and Ammon, we have not to look for in the particular historical occurrences through which these tribes were conquered and subjugated by the Chaldaeans, and to some extent by the Jews after the captivity, until they eventually vanished from the stage of history, and their lands became desolate, as they still are. These events can only come into consideration as preliminary stages of the fulfilment, which Zephaniah completely passes by, since he only views the judgment in its ultimate fulfilment. We are precluded, moreover, from taking the words as relating to that event by the circumstance, that neither Philistia on the one hand, nor Moabites and Ammonites on the other, were ever taken permanent possession of by the Jews; and still less were they ever taken by Judah, as the nation of God, for His own property. Judah is not to enter into such possession as this till the Lord turns the captivity of Judah (Zep 2:7); that is to say, not immediately after the return from the Babylonish captivity, but when the dispersion of Israel among the Gentiles, which lasts till this day, shall come to an end, and Israel, through its conversion to Christ, be reinstated in the privileges of the people of God. It follows from this, that the fulfilment is still in the future, and that it will be accomplished not literally, but spiritually, in the utter destruction of the nations referred to as heathen nations, and opponents of the kingdom of God, and in the incorporation of those who are converted to the living God at the time of the judgment, into the citizenship of the spiritual Israel. Until the eventual restoration of Israel, Philistia will remain an uninhabited shepherds’ pasture, and the land of the Moabites and Ammonites the possession of nettles, a place of salt-pits and a desert; just as the land of Israel will for the very same time be trodden down by the Gentiles. The curse resting upon these lands will not be entirely removed till the completion of the kingdom of God on earth. This view is proved to be correct by the contents of Zep 2:11, with which the prophet passes to the announcement of the judgment upon the nations of the south and north.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Punishment of Various Nations. | B. C. 612. |
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 salt-pits, 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 famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
The Moabites and Ammonites were both of the posterity of Lot; their countries joined, and, both adjoining to Israel, they are here put together in the prophecy against them.
I. They are both charged with the same crime, and that was reproaching and reviling the people of God and triumphing in their calamities (v. 8): They have reproached my people; while God’s people kept close to their duty it is probable that they reproached them for the singularities of their religion; and now that they had revolted from God, and fallen under his displeasure, they reproached them for that too. It has been the common lot of God’s people in all ages to be reproached and reviled upon one account or other. Thus the old serpent spits his venom; and pride is at the bottom of it; it is in their pride that they have magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts, thinking themselves as good as they, as great, and every way as happy. It is the comtempt of the proud that God’s people are filled with, Ps. cxxiii. 4. They have spoken big (so some read it, magna locuti sunt–they have spoken great things) against their border (v. 8), against those of them that bordered upon their country, whom upon all occasions they insulted, or against the property they claimed, which they disputed, or the protection they boasted of, which they ridiculed; they spoke big against the people of the Lord of hosts as a deserted abandoned people. Great swelling words of vanity are the genuine language of the church’s enemies. “But I have heard them” (says God), “and will let you know that I have heard them. I have heard, and I will reckon for them,” Jude 15. And, if God hears the reproaches and revilings we are under, it is a good reason why we should be as a deaf man that hears not,Psa 38:14; Psa 38:15. Nay, God not only takes notice of, but interests himself in the reproaches cast on his people, because they are his; and it is certain that those who look with disdain upon the people of the Lord of hosts thereby dishonour the Lord of hosts himself. See this very thing charged on Moab and Ammon, Eze 25:3; Eze 25:8.
II. They are both laid under the same doom. Associates in iniquity may expect to be such in desolation. See with what solemnity sentence is pronounced upon them, v. 9. It is the Lord of hosts, the sovereign Lord of all, who has authority to pass this sentence and ability to execute it; it is the God of Israel, who is jealous for their honour; it is he that has said it, nay, he has sworn it, As I live, saith the Lord. The sentence is, 1. That the Moabites and Ammonites shall be quite destroyed; they shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, the marks of whose ruins in the Dead Sea lay near adjoining to the countries of Moab and Ammon; they shall, though not by the same means (even fire from heaven), Yet almost in the same manner, be laid waste; not again to be inhabited, or not of a long time. The country shall produce nothing but nettles, instead of corn; and there shall be brine-pits, instead of the pleasant fountains of water with which the country had abounded. 2. That Israel shall be too hard for them, shall spoil them of their goods and possess their country by lawful war. Note, Proud men sometimes, by the just judgment of God, fall under the mortification of being trampled upon themselves by those whom once they haughtily trampled upon. And this shall they have for their pride.
III. Other nations shall in like manner be humbled, that the Lord alone may be exalted (v. 11): The Lord will be terrible unto the Moabites and Ammonites in particular, who have made themselves a terror to his Israel. For, 1. Heathen gods must be abolished. They have long had possession, and their worshippers have both glorified them and gloried in them. But the Lord will famish all the gods of the earth, will starve them out of their strong-holds. The Pagans had a fond conceit that their idols were regaled by their offerings, and did eat the fat of their sacrifices, Deut. xxxii. 38. Omnia comesta Belo–Bel has eaten all. But it is here promised that when the Christian religion is set up in the world men shall be turned from the service of these dumb idols, shall forsake their altars, and bring no more sacrifices to them, and thus they shall be famished, or made lean (as the word is), their priests shall. This intimates the vanity of those idols; it lies in the power of their worshippers to famish them; whereas the true God says, If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. It intimates also the victory of the God of Israel over them. Now know we that he is greater than all gods. 2. Heathen nations must be converted; when the gospel gets ground, by it men shall be brought to worship him who lives for ever (for that is the command of the everlasting gospel, Rev. xiv. 7), every one from his place; they shall not need to go up to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel, but wherever they are, they may have access to him. I will that men pray every where. God shall be worshipped, not only by all the tribes of Israel and the strangers who join themselves to them, but by all the isles of the heathen. This is a promise which looks favourably upon our native country, for it is one of the most considerable of the isles of the Gentiles, by which God will be glorified.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet confirms what I have just said of God’s vengeance against foreign enemies. Though all the neighboring nations had been eager in their hostility to the Jews, yet we know that more hatred, yea and more fury, had been exhibited by these two nations than by any other, that is, by the Moabites and the Ammonites, notwithstanding their connection with them by blood, for they derived their origin from Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew. Though, then, that connection ought to have turned the Moabites and the Ammonites to mercy, we yet know they always infested the Jews with greater fury than others, and as it were with savage cruelty. This is the reason why the Prophet speaks now especially of them. Some indeed take this sentence as spoken by the faithful; but the context requires it to be ascribed to God, and no doubt he reminds them that he looked down from on high on the proud vauntings of Moab which he scattered in the air, as though he had declared that it was not hidden or unknown to him how cruelly the Moabites and Ammonites raged against the Jews, how proud and inhuman they had been. And this was a very seasonable consolation. For the Jews might have been swallowed up with despair, had not this promise been made to them. They saw the Moabites and the Ammonites burning with fury, when yet they had not been injured or provoked. They also saw that they made gain and derived advantage from the calamities of a miserable people. What could the faithful think? These wicked men not only harassed them with impunity, but their cruelty and perfidy towards them was gainful. Where was God now? If he regarded his own Church, would he not have interposed? Lest then a temptation of this kind should upset the faithful, the Prophet introduces God here as the speaker,—
I have heard, he says, the reproach of Moab; I have heard the revilings of Amman: “Nothing escapes me; though I do not immediately show that these things are regarded by me, yet I know and observe how shamefully the Moabites and the Ammonites have persecuted you: they at length shall find that I am the guardian of your safety, and that you are under my protection.” We now apprehend the Prophet’s design. Nearly the same words are used by Isaiah, Isa 16:1, and also by Jeremiah Jer 48:1, they both pursue the subject much farther, while our Prophet only touches on it briefly, for we see that what he says is comprised in very few words. But by saying that the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Amman had come into remembrance before God, what he had in view was—that the Jews might be assured and fully persuaded that they were not rejected and forsaken, though for a time they were reproachfully treated by the wicked. The Prophet indeed takes the words reproach and revilings, in an active sense. (97)
He then adds, By which they have upbraided many people. God intimates here that he does not depart from his elect when the wicked spit, as it were, in their faces. There is indeed nothing which so much wounds the feelings of ingenuous minds as reproach; there is not so much bitterness in a hundred deaths as in one reproach, especially when the wicked licentiously triumph, and do this with the applauding consent of the whole world; for then all difference between good and evil is confounded, and good conscience is as it were buried. But the Prophet shows here, that the people of God suffer no loss when they are thus unworthily harassed by the wicked and exposed to their reproach.
He at last subjoins that they had enlarged over their border. Some consider mouth to be understood—they have enlarged the mouth against their border; and the word, it is true, without any addition, is often taken in this sense; but in this place the construction is fuller, for the words על-גבולם, ol-gebulam, over their border, follow the verb. The Prophet means that God’s wrath had been provoked by the petulance of both nations, for they wished to break up, as it were, the borders, which had been fixed by God. The land of Canaan, we know, had been given to the Jews by an hereditary right;—When the Most High, says Moses, divided the nations, he set a line for Jacob. Deu 32:8. It is indeed true that the possessions of the nations were allotted to them by the hidden counsel of God; but there was a special reason as to his chosen people; for the Lord had made Abraham the true possessor of that land, even for ever. Gen 17:8. Now the Moabites were confined, as it were, to a certain place; the Lord had assigned to them their own inheritance. When, therefore, they sought to go beyond and to invade the land of the Jews, God’s wrath must have been kindled against them; for they thus fought, not against mortals, but against God himself; for by removing the borders fixed by him, they attempted to subvert his eternal decree. We now then understand why the Prophet says that the children of Moab and of Ammon had enlarged over the border of those who had been placed in the land of Canaan by God’s hand; for they not only sought to eject their neighbors, but wished and tried to take away from God’s hand that inheritance which the Lord had given to Abraham, and given, as I have said, in perpetuity. (98)
(97) That is, the reproach cast by Moab, and the revilings uttered by Ammon.— Ed.
(98) There is a difference as to the meaning of the last line. Newcome adopts our common version,—
And magnified themselves against their border
Henderson’s rendering is essentially the same—
And carried themselves haughtily against their border.
The verb [ נדל ] is transitive and intransitive in Kal—to make great and to be great; it seems to partake of a similar character in Hiphil, as it is found here, to magnify, and to grow great or proud, and hence to exult or to triumph; and when followed by [ על ], as here, to exult over a person or a country,—see Job 19:5; Psa 35:26; Eze 35:13. In these verses “to exult over” would be the best rendering; as also in the 10 verse of this chapter. The idea of enlarging or extending over, as adopted by Jerome and Dathius, as well as by Calvin, is not countenanced by any other passage. The best rendering here is—
And exulted over their border.
This line corresponds with the revilings of Ammon, as the preceding does with the reproach of Moab. That it was the triumphant and exulting language of Ammon is evident, because it was what was heard —“I have heard,” etc. The particle [ אשר ], rendered here “ quibus —by which,” and “wherewith” by Newcome, is rendered “who” by Marckius and Henderson —“who have reproached on my people;” and this is the most natural construction. Some have rendered it “because.”— Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zep. 2:8. Moab] and Ammon rejoiced in the calamity of the Jews. Compare parallel prophecies against Moab (Isaiah 15, 16; Jeremiah 48; Amo. 2:1-3), and Ammon (Jer. 49:1-6; Amo. 1:13-15). Magnified] Acted insolently against their boundary (Jer. 48:29; 2Ki. 13:20).
Zep. 2:9.] The threat will certainly be executed. Divine existence itself pledged. The land shall be overrun with stinging nettles, and become a place for salt-pits, like the southern coast of the Dead Sea. A remnant of Jews shall possess the people themselves.
Zep. 2:10.] The judgment is talio. The universality of it stands out with greater precision, according to its two-fold fundamental characteristic [Lange].
Zep. 2:11. Famish] Deprive them of worship and sacrifices, which were considered food (Deu. 32:38). His place] Not in Jerusalem alone, but everywhere worship Jehovah (Psa. 68:29; Mal. 1:11).
HOMILETICS
THE JUDGMENT UPON THE MOABITES.Zep. 2:8-10
Moab and Ammon were of blood relation to Israel. Their country adjoined Canaan, and from the time of Balak they were always reviling Israel, and invading their territory, and plundering their cities. The pride and insolence of Ammon were proverbial. They were now to be punished for their conduct.
I. The nature of their doom. Their land was to be spoiled, and their cities exterminated.
1. The tribes would be destroyed. They would incur a fate like Sodom and Gomorrah, which are ingulfed in the Dead Sea.
2. The land would be cursed. Nettles would infest it, salt-pits would tear it up, and desolation would be perpetual. Destruction, barrenness, and extinction beyond recovery (Jer. 49:18). The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning: it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein; like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath.
II. The certainty of their doom. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts. Jehovah pledges himself by solemn oath to inflict the destruction. When God threatens men seem slow to believe that he is in easnes. When be appeals to his own existence in support of his truth they should fear. Because he could swear by no greater he swears by himself.
III. The cause of their doom.
1. Their pride. This shall they have for their pride. Pride and arrogance are specially offensive to God. When men magnify themselves against the people of God and their possessions, they magnify themselves against God. God will bring them low, and give them shame and contempt.
2. Their cruelty. They reviled and reproached the people of God (Zep. 2:8); took pleasurs in their misfortunes; cherished constant hatred towards them; and violated their land age after age. Pride begets insolence and cruelty, and these expose to the judgment of God. It is a dangerous indiscretion for a man not to know the bounds of his own calling [Bp. Hall]. A mans pride shall bring him him low.
My pride fell with my fortunes [As you like it].
THE LIVING GOD.Zep. 2:8-11
I live. God here declares his eternal self-existence. In the beginning God. The living God is not indifferent to human affairs; neither does he keep silence. He has entered into relationships and covenants indicated by the name, the God of Israel, revealed his majestic power, and triumphed gloriously over the rebellious The Lord, strong and mighty. This God has spoken, linked his sayings with his character, and made them emphatic by an oath.
I. The living God is cognisant of all that transpires on earth. I have heard. Nothing escapes the eyes of God. All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God is an ever-present listener (whispering gallery: telephone).
1. God hears the mockery of evil tongues. I have heard the reproach of Moab, &c. How painful for us to hear all the slanders, curses, and blasphemies of one day! Yet God hears all the evil-speaking of men through all time. The God of patience may bear long with personal and national provocations, but he feels, and expresses feeling in words. As I live, saith the Lord of hosts. This brings out the idea
2. That God is affected by the injury done to his people. This truth was unfolded to Moses when commanded to go to Egypt (Exo. 3:7-10). Note how the exalted, living Christ identifies himself with his persecuted people. (Act. 9:1-14). This truth should comfort and sustain, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, &c.
II. The living God administers timely justice. Nations only exist in time, and so in time punishment takes place. We are dealt with as individuals before the judgment-seat of Christ. Moab and Ammon, for repeated and persistent offences, are threatened with Divine judgments. Gods words soon become Gods works, notwithstanding seeming hindrances and impossibilities. The guilt was great and grievous. Observe
1. The severity of the Divine judgment. Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah. We have no encouragement from the history of nations to regard Gods mercy as amiable weakness, or his judgments as harsh and vindictive. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Under his righteous administration, and in the execution of judgment for the oppressed, light words may bring heavy blows, and defiant tones desolating retributions. Cause and effect, sin and suffering, are here connected.
2. The Divine judgment was the penalty of pride and arrogance. This shall they have for their pride, &c. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Illustrations:Goliath (1 Samuel 17); Benhadad (1 Kings 20); Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4); Babylon (Isaiah 47).
III. The living God is jealous of his name and worship. The Lord will be terrible unto them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, &c. An eidlon is a thing that can be seen and put for a being who cannot be seen. God is a spirit, and no image can represent a spirit. He prohibits the attempt to make a likeness of himself (Exodus 20). The maedicties won this sin are numerous and startling. It is specially offensive and insulting to the one living and true God. With the most horrible, inhuman, and debasing rites, Moab and Ammon worshipped gods, and left the infamous names of Chemosh, Molech, Milcom, and Peor.
1. Idolatry is a flagrant insult to the living God.
2. God declares his intention to exterminate it. For he will famish all the gods of the earth. The triumphs of Divine truth over idolatry have been signal and complete. Islands and countries have abolished their idols. The process goes on and must continue, for he hath said, I am God, and there is none like me. The idols he shall utterly abolish.
3. God predicts the universality of true and acceptable worship. Jealous for his character, God will tolerate no rival. The heathen gods shall be without offerings and devotees. The destructive work is to prepare for the constructive, or rather the true worship is to displace the false. Men shall worship Him, every one from his place, &c. However prevalent, mighty, and venerable idol worship may be in some places, it is doomed. Whether slowly or rapidly men turn from idols to serve the living God, the promise must be accomplished. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. The predicted universality of acceptable worship should (a) Incite the Church of God to pray earnestly, thy kingdom come; and (b) Inspire unceasing aggressive efforts, until the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ [Mt. Braithwaite].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zep. 2:8.
1. No relation will bind the wicked to the Church, and in sympathy with the godly. However near, they break loose, persecute, and revile them.
2. But God takes notice of this conduct towards his people, declares his love, and determines to punish their enemies. Chastisement does not hinder affection for them. I have heard the reproach. The memory of God is one of the most fearful things of which a man can think. He notices particularly the dishonour done to his people, because they only take no heed of dishonour, and are not allowed to defend themselves. But take heed that you are not reviled on account of your own sins. Such reviling God does not punish, but it is itself punishment [Lange].
Zep. 2:11. The extermination of dolatry, and the establishment of Gods worship.
1. Idolatry to be exterminated. For he will famish all the gods of the earth. They will die from want and starvation. There will be a gradual and universal destruction of idols. This happened in the days of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, who chastised the Jews and weaned them from heathen deities; in the early age of Christianity, and in modern missions.
2. Divine worship to be established. Not only at Jerusalem but universally. Men shall worship him, every one from his own place. His own Gentile home taught by Jews in the true religion. All the isles of the heathen,the maritime regions of the West. This prediction is being fulfilled at present; and ere long, From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering (Mal. 1:11; Psa. 2:8; Num. 14:21).
HOMILETICS
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD A SCHEME OF REDEMPTION.Zep. 2:11
The immense value of this verse consists in the fact that it reveals a law, a constant invariable law, of the Divine government. It stands alone and is complete. It is a place of vantage, a point of rest, to which the prophet has risen, and from which he contemplates not simply the doom of which he has spoken, or the dooms of which he is about to speak, but the whole course of the Divine providence. And as he looks before and after, as he recalls the past and project himself into the future, he finds this to be a law of human history, that the judgments of God are a necessary part of the scheme of redemption: that God intends them to recover men from error to truth, from sin to holiness [S. Cox]. Let us trace this thought
I. In human experience. God often visits in terror, smites our gods, and takes away what is dearest and most valuable. This terror brings torment and despair. The darkness hides the light, and the judgment the mercy. God is terrible indeed to us. But how else could we be weaned from sin, delivered from idolatry, and restored to God? Threatenings have been unheeded, mercies have been abused, and promises are of no avail. Severe measures must be adopted. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord.
II. In the history of the Christian Church. In the Jewish nation, in apostolic times and in modern history, this truth is abundantly confirmed. The Church has been purified by persecution, and nations have been saved by the famishing of their gods. These judgments, says one, answer to the convulsions and storms of the natural world, and serve to disperse the foul infections which brood over the homes of men, to raise them to happier conditions, and to pour round them a more vital air. God thus starves idols to make known himself, clothes himself in terrors to redeem from error, and reveals mercy to win the isles of the heathen. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Zep. 2:10-11. Pride. That which first overcame man, is the last thing he overcomes [Augustine].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(8) Reproach.i.e., abusive speech, or offensive design expressed in words. Balaks appeal to Balaam, Come, curse me this people, at once suggests itself. We may instance also the conspiracy described in Psalms 83 as illustrating this combination of Moab and Ammon for hostile purposes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(8-11) The sentence against Moab and Ammon, the descendants of Lot and the enemies of Gods people, even in the post-exilic period, comp. Neh. 2:19; Neh. 4:1; Neh. 4:3; Neh. 4:7.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8-11. The doom of Moab and Ammon. On the location of these nations see comments on Amo 1:13-15; Amo 2:1-3.
I have heard The evil deeds and words of the Moabites and Ammonites have reached the ear of Jehovah (compare Gen 4:10; Gen 18:20).
Reproach revilings Expressed not only in words, but also in hostile attacks upon the territory of the Hebrews. These were not confined to any one period, but continued throughout the entire history (compare Numbers 22 ff.; Jdg 3:12 ff; Jdg 10:7 ff.; 1Sa 11:1-5; 2Sa 8:2 and passages mentioned below). Other prophets condemn these two nations for their hostile attitude toward the people of Jehovah (Moab, Num 24:17; Isaiah 15, 16, Jeremiah 48; Eze 25:8 ff.; Ammon, Amo 1:13-15; Jeremiah 49; Eze 25:1-7).
Reproached my people Every attack and every act of hostility constituted an insult to the people that was under the special protection of Jehovah.
Magnified themselves against their border That is, the border of my people; LXX. reads “my borders,” that is, the borders of Jehovah’s land (compare Jer 48:26; Jer 48:42). “Magnified themselves” is literally “they made great” or “did great things,” which means not only “they uttered great things” but “they did great things” as well. The great and arrogant deeds consisted chiefly in violating the boundaries of Israel and endeavoring to annex Israelitish territory (Amo 1:13; Jer 49:1).
Zep 2:9-10 announce the judgment.
As I live A formula of asseveration, which is very common in Ezekiel (see on Amo 4:2; Amo 8:14). The accumulation of the divine titles serves to add solemnity to the utterance (compare Isa 1:24).
Jehovah of hosts See on Hos 12:5.
God of Israel Emphasizes the peculiar relation of Jehovah to Israel, and his special interest in its welfare.
Sodom, Gomorrah The overthrow of the cities of the Plain (Gen 19:25) is frequently used as a type of utter destruction (Isa 1:9; Deu 29:23). The next three expressions describe the completeness of the destruction.
Breeding of nettles R.V., “possession of nettles”; margin, “of wild vetches.” The territories shall remain uncultivated and desolate, so that nothing but nettles will grow there. The meaning of the first word is not quite certain; “possession” expresses the right idea. The precise plant meant is uncertain. Post thinks that the word is a generic term which may be applied to any wild thorn or shrub. Tristram identifies it with the “prickly acanthus, a very common and troublesome weed abundant among ruins” (compare Isa 14:23).
Salt pits Where salt pits exist vegetation is dead; hence the presence of salt pits symbolizes desolation and barrenness (compare Deu 29:23; Isa 13:19; Jer 49:18; also, “he sowed it with salt,” Jdg 9:45).
Perpetual desolation There is to be no restoration.
Residue remnant See on Zep 2:7; compare Zep 2:3, and reference there.
Shall spoil them Better, shall take them as spoil; the expression is identical in meaning with “shall possess [R.V., “inherit”] them,” in the last clause. “Them” some commentators refer to the people of Moab and Ammon in distinction from the land, which is threatened with utter destruction and desolation. This distinction is made “because a land turned into an eternal desert and salt steppe would not be adapted for a possession for the people of Jehovah.” It is very doubtful, however, that the author meant to make this distinction. The description must not be pressed too literally, and there can be no serious objection to the supposition that the prophet means to threaten two distinct calamities, complete destruction and annexation to Judah.
Zep 2:10 repeats the statement of the guilt which is responsible for the judgment (see on Zep 2:8). In the last clause LXX. omits “the people of,” and reads, “against Jehovah of hosts” (see on their border, Zep 2:8).
In Zep 2:8-9 Jehovah is the speaker, so also in Zep 2:12; therefore Zep 2:12 forms a natural continuation of Zep 2:9. In Zep 2:10-11 Jehovah is spoken of in the third person, which makes it quite probable that these verses contain the words of another speaker. If Zep 2:10 is original (see pp. 519f.) it must be explained as a repetition by the prophet, in his own words, of the condemnation which in Zep 2:8 he places in the mouth of Jehovah. In a similar manner would have to be explained Zep 2:11. The prophet has announced, in the words of Jehovah, the complete destruction of Moab and Ammon; before turning to another nation he makes a comment out of his own heart: “Jehovah will be terrible unto them.”
Terrible In causing utter destruction. When they see his terrible power they will recognize him as the God (Mal 1:14).
Unto them The people of Moab and Ammon.
For Better, yea; introducing a new act of Jehovah (G.-K., 148d). He will not be satisfied with overawing the two nations; before the whole world he will show himself supreme.
He will famish all the gods of the earth A peculiar expression; literally, he will make lean. If the verb is original the thought of the prophet seems to be that by his terrible manifestations, Jehovah will prove himself the true God with such effectiveness that he will take away from the deities now worshiped by the other nations their devotees with their gifts. By the withdrawal of these gifts the deities are made lean, and finally they will starve to death. In other words, the prophet looks forward to the time when the nothingness of all the other deities will be recognized, and when all men will worship Jehovah.
Every one from his place The most natural interpretation of these words is that every one will worship Jehovah wherever he lives, that is, without going to a central sanctuary. This marks a distinct advance over passages like Isa 2:2-4; Mic 4:1-4, and moves in the direction of the utterances of Jesus in Joh 4:20 ff. The interpretation of Kleinert and others, which makes the prophet say that everyone will go from his home to Jerusalem to worship there, is less natural.
All the isles of the heathen R.V., “of the nations”; margin, “coast lands.” The term seems to have been applied in the beginning to the coast lands and islands of the Mediterranean, but in time it became equivalent to “distant regions” (Isa 41:1; Isa 59:18).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Moab and Ammon ( Zep 2:8-11 ).
Zep 2:8
“I have heard the reproach of Moab,
And the revilings of the children of Ammon,
With which they have reproached my people,
And magnified themselves against their border.”
Judgment is to come on Moab and Ammon, not only because of their sinfulness, but also particularly because of their attitude and antagonism towards God’s people. Note that their sin is reproach and revilings, not invasion, although they are clearly threatening the border. This fits the fact that it occurred at this time, and not later when invasion had taken place. There was clear hostility indicated in all their dealings with Judah. This would later reveal itself in taking advantage of Israel’s condition once the invader had done his work, by occupying their territory (Jer 49:1), but that is not mentioned by Zephaniah. The fact that Edom is not mentioned here confirms that this is not written after the event, for it was Edom which incurred the greatest wrath from Israel once the exile had taken place.
Moab and Ammon were in Transjordan, east of the Jordan, to the south and east of Israelite territory there (Gad). They had a record of constant enmity against Israel (Numbers 22; Num 24:17; Jdg 3:12-14; Jdg 10:7-9; Jdg 11:4-6; 1Sa 11:1-11 ; 2Sa 10:1-14; 2 Kings 3) and always worked closely together, with first one and then the other in ascendancy.
Zep 2:9-10
“Therefore as I live,” says YHWH of hosts,
the God of Israel,
“Surely Moab will be as Sodom,
And the children of Ammon as Gomorrah,
A possession of nettles and saltpits,
And a perpetual desolation.
The residue of my people will spoil them,
And the remnant of my nation will inherit them.”
This will they have for their pride,
Because they have reproached and magnified themselves,
Against the people of YHWH of hosts.’
Moab and Ammon were to be made as Sodom and Gomorrah, permanently destroyed and turned into wasteland. Moab occupied territory that had once been the surrounds of Sodom and Gomorrah. This should have been a continuing warning to them. Nebuchadnezzar in fact devastated both areas. Both territories suffered for a period of over two hundred years when there was no sedentary occupation (Jer 48:42), and when resettled it was by different peoples. These consequences were put even more strongly by Jeremiah, Moab was to be destroyed from being a people (Jer 48:42), and Ammon was to perish out of the countries and be destroyed (Eze 25:7).
‘The residue of my people will spoil them, and the remnant of my nation will inherit them.’ Compare Isa 11:14. This probably refers to a period we know little about when Ammon and Moab were sparsely populated and partly taken over by a residue of Israelites. Later Judas Maccabaeus (second century BC) fought against the Ammonites and occupied Jazer and its surrounding towns ( 1Ma 5:6 ) and Alexander Jannaeus subdued the Moabites in the second/first century BC, taking tribute from them. But these would be different peoples.
‘This will they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of YHWH of hosts.’ The judgment that is coming on them is because of their pride in reproaching and assuming themselves as greater and more important than God’s people, and with it have reproached YHWH Himself. But this will lead on to them recognising His power and glory in the eschatological future and being in awe of Him.
Zep 2:11
‘And YHWH will be terrible to them,
For he will famish all the gods of the earth,
And men will worship him, every one from his place,
Even all the coastlands of the nations.’
God had promised that one day he would ‘bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days’, and spoke similarly of Ammon (Jer 48:47; Jer 49:6 compare Jer 49:39). This must mean in the eschatological future and be part of the idea that in that day all nations would worship YHWH, because in the end none can be outside His offer of mercy (Isa 2:2). He cannot be promising restoration to their land, for they are unidentifiable. They have ceased to be a people. There is no pure blood Moab today. And the same applies to Ammon. The idea is rather that they will be restored as part of the worldwide peoples who turn to YHWH at the spread of the Gospel.
‘YHWH will be terrible to them.’ This must mean that one day even some of these enemies of Israel will acknowledge YHWH, and will be in awe of Him, recognising that He is the great and terrible God (Neh 1:5; Neh 9:32). They will have recognised Him for what He is. Then the ‘gods’ of the earth will starve because no one takes any notice of them. So much for the gods of the nations. All His own will worship Him in all lands, even the furthest known, ‘the coastlands’.
So this further eschatological promise confirms that in the end the residue of all nations will worship YHWH (Mal 1:11). One day God alone will be God, and He will be all in all, worshipped by some of all the nations who have responded to Him. The final fulfilment of this awaits the new heaven and the new earth in the eternal state when all the redeemed will serve Him, every one from his place. Idealistically they will have their own place there as well.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Door of Moab, Amman, and Assyria
v. 8. I have heard the reproach of Moab, v. 9. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 10. This shall they have for their pride, v. 11. The Lord will be terrible unto them, v. 12. Ye Ethiopians also, v. 13. And He will stretch out His hand against the North, and destroy Assyria, v. 14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, v. 15. This is the rejoicing city,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
“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 famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, everyone 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 cormorant 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! everyone that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.”
I would beg to make the same observation as before, only with this addition, that here the Lord calls Israel his people, and takes offence chiefly on their account at the nations. The Lord repeats it often, yea, twice in one verse, my people; as if he took delight in the, relationship. Reader! it is the principal feature, according to my view, in this Chapter; and therefore I pray you not to overlook it. And observe moreover, that though the Prophet opened his commission in judgment, as in the second verse of the prophecy, declaring that the Lord would consume all things from off the land; yet how soon is mercy declared to Israel, and how often repeated in this Chapter! The Lord is about to make Moab, and the nations, as Sodom and Gomorrah, yet Israel shall be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation. And where shall we look for the cause, or to whom shall we refer for the mercy, but to that Lord, that Holy One, that Meek One, whom Israel is commanded to seek? Isa 45:17 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Zep 2:8 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.
Ver. 8. I have heard the reproach of Moab ] How can he but hear who is all ear? who is both above us, and within us, in whom we subsist, Col 1:17 . And what will he sooner be sensible of than the reproachings of his people? see Isa 37:28 ; Isa 57:3-4 ; “But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.” (See how he becalls them.) “Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood?” The Moabites and Ammonites were great jeerers of the Jews, and revilers of their religion. These reproaches, leniter volant, non leniter violant, cruel mockings the apostle calleth them, Heb 11:36 . David felt them as a murdering weapon in his bones, Psa 42:10 . God will call such men to a heavy reckoning one day as deride the power of godliness and the professors thereof. Bede saith, that this was the great sin of the ancient Britons immediately before their destruction by the Saxons; and it is at this day both a presage and desert of our ruin, that as the Turks count all fools to be saints, so men with us account all saints to be fools.
And the revilings of the children of Ammon
And magnified themselves
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I have heard. Supply the logical Ellipsis (App-6): “[My judgment shall come upon Moab], for I have heard”, &c, as in Zep 2:8, &c.
Moab. Compare Isa 15and Isa 16. Jer 48. Amo 2:1-3.
children = sons.
Ammon. Compare Jer 49:1-6. Amo 1:13-15.
reproached. See Jdg 11:12-28.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
heard: Jer 48:27-29, Eze 25:8-11
the revilings: Psa 83:4-7, Jer 49:1, Eze 25:3-7, Eze 36:2, Amo 1:13
Reciprocal: Gen 27:29 – cursed Isa 15:1 – Moab Jer 12:14 – against Jer 25:21 – Moab Jer 30:16 – General Jer 48:1 – Moab Jer 48:24 – Bozrah Jer 48:26 – for he Jer 48:29 – heard Lam 2:16 – We have swallowed Lam 3:61 – General Eze 21:28 – concerning the Eze 25:2 – the Ammonites Eze 25:6 – rejoiced Eze 28:26 – despise Eze 36:5 – against the Eze 36:15 – thou bear Joe 3:2 – and parted Amo 2:1 – of Moab Zep 2:10 – for Zec 2:8 – the nations
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zep 2:8. These heathen nations had spoken lightly of the Lord’s people and he was aroused in his jealousy over it, so that He was determined to make them feel the sting of divine wrath.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zep 2:8-11. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of Ammon These countries were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem: see the places referred to in the margin, where, as well as here, they are threatened with destruction, for their insulting over the Jews in their calamities. And magnified themselves against their border Have invaded their territories: see Jer 49:1. Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and Ammon as Gomorrah Proverbial expressions signifying utter destruction; and a perpetual desolation That shall never more be possessed by its former inhabitants. The residue of my people shall spoil them Judas Maccabeus and his brethren subdued the Ammonites: see 1Ma 5:6. But this and the seventh verse, says Lowth, will receive their utmost completion at the general restoration of the Jewish nation. Those that then escape, and return from their several dispersions, are elsewhere called by the name of the residue, and the remnant: compare chap. Zep 3:13; and see note on Mic 4:7. The Lord will be terrible unto them Or, The Lord, who is to be feared, is against, or above them, and will make it appear that he is terrible in his judgments. For he will famish all the gods of the earth Such as Dagon, Chemosh, Moloch, &c., all those that are gods nowhere else but upon the earth, among the deceived sons of earth, vile, spurious gods. Though their altars are now filled with sacrifices, and their bowls run over, as if it were designed to make them fat, they shall be famished, or starved, by being deprived of their sacrifices and drink-offerings. Instead of, He will famish, Houbigant reads, He will dissipate: but it is justly observed by Bishop Warburton, that the expression, as it stands in our version, is noble, alluding to the popular superstitions of paganism, which conceived that the gods were nourished by the steam of sacrifices. And men shall worship him, every one from his place Or, in his place: that is, not only at Jerusalem, but everywhere: see the margin. Even all the isles of the heathen By the earth the Jews understood the great continent of all Asia and Africa, to which they had access by land; and by the isles of the sea they understood the places to which they sailed by sea, particularly all Europe. Sir I. Newton, on Daniel, p. 216. Chrysostom cites this passage, according to the version of the LXX., and applies it to gospel times, as an argument against the Jews, and surely it was chiefly meant of those times; for never were the false gods so famished, or so destroyed, as they were by the preaching of the gospel. Then especially did men, in every place where the gospel prevailed, worship the true God alone. It is true, many of the people, among whom the Jews were dispersed in the time of their captivity, and also with whom they had commerce after their return, were instructed by them in the knowledge of the one living and true God; yet, what is said here seems to be much more applicable to the times of the gospel, than to any conversion of the heathen to the worship of Jehovah, which was ever effected by the Jews, before Christ sent out his apostles to preach his gospel through all the world.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Zep 2:8-10. Into the natural context of the passage a later writer has woven a prophecy of vengeance on Moab and Ammon for their revilings and insults heaped upon Judah (on the day of Jerusalems downfall), For this their land shall become waste as Sodom and Gomorrah, a perpetual desolation, overrun by nettles and saltpits, while the remnant of Judah shall plunder them and hold them in bondage.
Zep 2:9. a possession: an obscure word, probably meaning inherited by.The desolation of Sodom and Gomorrah was proverbial (cf. Isa 1:9).
Zep 2:11. A still later addition, universalising the judgment, but following it up with a prophecy of Yahweh s world-wide reign.
Zep 2:12. Probably the original sequel to the oracle of doom (Zep 2:1-7). The natural path of the storm would be through Egypt to Ethiopia; but the doom on Egypt is absent, while even that on Ethiopia is suspiciously brief. The prophecy may have been curtailed in process of redaction.
Zep 2:13-15. While one arm of the devastating flood has passed through Palestine to Egypt and Ethiopia, another sweeps north to Assyria, overwhelming the proud capital Nineveh, making her a desolation, the haunt of lonely herds and creatures of the waste.
Zep 2:14. For beasts of the nations read beasts of the field (LXX).For qol, voice, read kos, the little owl that haunted ruins (cf. Psa 102:6), and for horeb, drought (mg.), read oreb, the raven (LXX): thus, The owl shall hoot in the window, the raven at the doorstep (cf. Isa 34:11). The closing phrase is a mere dittograph to the opening words of Zep 2:15.On the desolation of Nineveh cf. Nah 2:11 ff.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2:8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and {f} magnified [themselves] against their border.
(f) These nations presumed to take from the Jews that country which the Lord had given them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Judgment coming on Moab and Ammon 2:8-11
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Probably Zephaniah linked Moab and Ammon because both nations descended from Lot (Gen 19:30-38) as well as because both lay to Judah’s east. Both nations had taunted and reviled the Israelites from their earliest history. They had repeatedly lifted themselves up as enemies of God’s chosen people (cf. Numbers 22; Num 24:17; Jdg 3:12-14; Jdg 10:7-9; Jdg 11:4-6; 1Sa 11:1-11; 2Sa 10:1-14; 2 Kings 3).