I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, wherewith they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
Zephaniah 2 turns from Judah to the nations around it, and here the prophet looks east at two old neighbours, Moab and Ammon. Their weapon was not the sword but the tongue, and God says He heard every word.
The judgment in this chapter does not stop at one side of the land. One writer notes the move from west to east.
It is not merely the Philistines on the west, but Moab and the others on the east who must come into judgment for their proud enmity.
Moab and Ammon were not strangers. Both nations came from Lot. One writer looks back at where they began.
Was it not morally useful for Israel to remember where a lasting thorn in their side came from? It began in the shameful origin of the Moabite and the Ammonite. These were two nations, neighbours and relatives, known for their constant envy and hatred toward the people of God.
The verse does not say Israel heard the taunts; God does. Writers draw out why an attack on a people counts as an attack on God.
The heart calls on God to remember the attacks and insults of the enemy instead of being alarmed by them, for the reproach falls on His name. And this is true. For the world's hostility is really against the Lord when it is against His people. If they were not His people, the world would not trouble itself much about them. God's people have to remember the same thing, and in their own weakness to remember what is at stake.
The last phrase of the verse is about land. One writer traces these borders back to God's first promise to Israel.
Israel is now in a position to receive the full inheritance she has never yet received. Even in her greatest days, Moab, Edom and the Philistines lay inside the territory promised to her from the start. Their divine Leader deliberately spared the first two, along with Ammon, the other son of Lot, and left them the lands they then held. But that was only temporary. They never turned to God, and the prophets from Balaam onward announced judgment on them.
Why does this judgment fall? One writer answers with an image drawn from farming.
This judgment of Moab and Ammon is the harvest which their pride and self-exaltation has brought them.
Has this judgment already happened? One writer points to Nehemiah's day and answers no.
No one can say that all this has been fulfilled. Nehemiah must have felt sharply that it was not. Tobiah the Ammonite opposed the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, and men of the returned remnant had married wives of Ashdod, of Moab and of Ammon. Zephaniah looks on to the future, the time of Israel's full restoration and supremacy over the nations. And how gracious of God to give through His servant such a picture of the future, when dark days were about to close in over the little kingdom of Judah!
Beyond the history, one writer reads Moab as a picture. Where the nation came from explains what it stands for.
Moab was the child of Lot's sin. Lot was a child of God. But he was not content with a life of obedient dependence on Him, and chose instead to go down into Sodom for worldly gain. Moab represents the results of that departure. So it fits that the nation coming from him should picture mere profession: an outward connection with God with nothing real behind it.
- Reproach spoken. Moab and Ammon attacked with words. They taunted God's people and boasted against land promised to Israel.
- Reproach heard. God answers as the injured party. Hostility to His people is hostility to Him. If they were not His, the world would take little interest in them.
- Reproach rooted. Pride is the source. The judgment announced is the harvest that pride grew.
- Reproach reversed. These neighbours held their land only on loan. Israel has never yet received her full inheritance, so the promise still waits on the future.
- Reproach mirrored. Moab came from Lot's compromise. So it pictures an outward link with God with nothing real behind it — kinship that looks close and acts like an enemy.
Therefore, [as] I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall certainly be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation; the remnant of my people shall spoil them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them.
Zephaniah turns east across the Jordan to Moab and Ammon, two neighbours who mocked Judah when she was weak. The sentence is as severe as Sodom's ruin, yet it ends with a promise — so who are "my people," and when do they take possession?
Moab and Ammon both descended from Lot. The charge against them has two halves: what they said about Israel, and how they behaved at Israel's border. One writer sets out the offence, the sentence, and its timing:
Moab and Ammon had sinned against Israel, they reviled them and magnified themselves against their border. Their judgment is announced, as it is in the earlier prophets, like Joel, Amos, and Ezekiel. Moab will be overthrown like Sodom, and Ammon will become like Gomorrah. Then the judgment of Moab and Ammon will finally come, in His day. The remnant of His people will plunder them, and the remnant will possess them. It is obvious this also remains to be fulfilled.
Notice the possessive in the verse — my people, my nation. That is the whole reason an insult aimed at Judah lands on God:
From the moment God is in Israel He identifies Himself with His people. Because of this, He deals with the nations according to how they treated Israel. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," says the King. The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye.
Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities God destroyed in Genesis. Scripture reaches for them again and again:
"The glare of Sodom and Gomorrah is thrown across the whole length of Scripture history. It is the best-known and standard judgment on human sin. Genesis tells the story. Deuteronomy applies it, and so do Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Lamentations and Ezekiel. Our Lord Himself employs it more than once as the figure of the judgment."
The weeds in the verse say the same thing on a smaller scale:
Scripture mentions nettles as a sign that a place was deserted and given up to desolation. In Job, the poor outcasts take shelter under them. Job 30:7; Prov. 24:31; Isa. 34:13; Hosea 9:6; Zeph. 2:9.
This verse is the last mention of Moab in the Bible. One writer traces the whole line, and finds a picture of something in us:
The Moabites are a striking figure of the Flesh. (1) Their start was bad (Gen. 19:37). (2) They were excluded from the congregation of God's people (Deut. 23:3; Neh. 13:1). (3) They were to be utterly destroyed, the last mention of them in Scripture being: "As I live, declares the LORD of hosts … Moab shall become like Sodom … a waste forever" (Zeph. 2:9).
The second half of the verse turns from ruin to ownership: the wasteland still changes hands. One writer ties this to an inheritance Israel has never yet held:
So Israel is now ready to receive the full inheritance she has never yet received. Even in her greatest days, Moab, Edom and the Philistines lay inside the territory God first promised her. God Himself, her divine Leader, spared the first two, along with Ammon, the other son of Lot, and those nations kept the lands they then held. But this was only temporarily; for they never turned to God.
And the heirs are not the powerful. Zephaniah keeps returning to a small surviving group:
Both in chapters 2 and 3 "the remnant" is chiefly in view, "The remnant of the house of Judah," "the remnant of my people" (Zeph. 2:7, 9). These are "the afflicted and poor people" who trust in the name of the Lord (Zeph. 3:12), and who are blessed in connection with Christ.
History supplies the test. Ammonites and Moabites were still troubling God's people long after Zephaniah wrote:
None can say that all this has been fulfilled. Nehemiah must have felt that sharply. Tobiah the Ammonite opposed the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, and men of the returned remnant had married wives of Ashdod, Moab and Ammon (Neh. 13:23). Zephaniah looks on to the future, the time of Israel's full restoration and triumphant supremacy over the nations. And how gracious of God to give this forecast through His servant, just as dark days were about to close over the little kingdom of Judah!
- Contempt starts it. Moab and Ammon insulted God's people and set themselves up against Israel's border.
- God takes it personally. He identifies Himself with His people. He deals with each nation according to how it treated Israel: to touch them is to touch the apple of His eye.
- Sodom sets the measure. Sodom and Gomorrah are Scripture's standard picture of judgment on sin. Nettles mark ground that people have left for good.
- The weak inherit. The land passes to "the remnant" — the afflicted and poor who trust in the name of the Lord, not to the strong.
- Not yet done. Ammonites and Moabites still opposed God's people in Nehemiah's day. Writers read the verse as pointing on to Israel's full restoration.
This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts.
Zephaniah has just announced doom on Moab and Ammon, and this verse gives the reason: their pride, voiced in taunts against Israel. So why does God count insults against a small, failing nation as insults against Himself — and is that sentence finished?
The nations around Judah were not innocent bystanders. Their place in God's dealings did not protect them.
Then the prophecy denounces the various nations that had been hostile to the land and to God's people. God had at times used some of them to punish His chosen people. But they had become full of pride, and they had abused their power. So His judgements would certainly fall on them. The prophecy, however, looks on to the future great day of God's wrath.
One writer traces how that pride grew, and where it led.
He leaves His people to the consequences of their sin, so they fall under the power of their enemies. Because of this, the pride of those enemies rises so high that it brings down the judgment of God. He steps in to deliver the remnant whom He loves, and to take His place as righteous Ruler over all the nations.
The verse does not say they boasted against Israel; it says they boasted against the people of the LORD of hosts. That title is the sting.
From the moment God is in Israel He identifies Himself with His people. Because of this, He deals with the nations according to how they treated Israel. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," says the King. The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye.
Moab and Ammon were not strangers to Israel. Their hostility lasted for centuries.
There was real moral profit for Israel in remembering the source of a constant thorn in their side — the shameful origin of the Moabite and the Ammonite. These two nations were neighbours and relatives of Israel, known for endless envy and hostility against the people of God. The one true God notes it all in His wisdom. Sin then as now produced a harvest, large and long-continued… "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
What this verse announces is that harvest arriving.
This judgment of Moab and Ammon is the harvest which their pride and self-exaltation has brought to them (verse 10).
History has not yet caught up with this prophecy.
No one can say that all this has been fulfilled. Nehemiah must have felt sharply that it was not. Tobiah the Ammonite opposed the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. Men of the remnant who had returned had married wives of Ashdod, of Moab, and of Ammon (Neh. 13:23). Zephaniah looks on to the future, to the time of Israel's full restoration and triumphant supremacy over the nations. How gracious of God to give through His servant such a forecast of the future, when dark days were about to close over the little kingdom of Judah!
The pride named here is not a national quirk of the ancient Middle East. It is a settled attitude, and Scripture describes how it works and how God answers it.
Pride. The Greek New Testament has several words that we translate as pride. The one used here (hyperephania) means a spirit of self-exaltation in a person, joined with putting others down… This arrogance shows itself in boastful words and proud deeds. But its origin is within the heart. A line from Mary's song, the Magnificat, shows this: "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts" (Luke 1:51). This form of haughtiness is offensive to God and open to His immediate judgment. Both James and Peter write that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). The root idea of the word is lifting yourself up to show yourself off above your fellows — a personal puffing up that brings a person into the condemnation of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6).
- Pride is the root. God once used these nations as His instrument. They grew proud, misused the power He lent them, and drew His judgment down on themselves.
- Pride finds a voice. It starts in the heart: lifting yourself up while putting others down. Then it breaks out in boastful words and deeds.
- Pride picks the wrong target. God identifies Himself with His people, so He deals with nations by how they treated them. Touch His people and you touch the apple of His eye.
- Pride reaps a harvest. Moab and Ammon's long envy, sprung from a shameful origin, ripened into the judgment this verse announces. What they sowed, they reaped.
- Pride still awaits its full answer. The sentence looks on to a future day. Meanwhile the rule stands: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.