Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors 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?
Why these two nations
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:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinMoab 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:
J. N. DarbyFrom 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, nettles and salt pits
Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities God destroyed in Genesis. Scripture reaches for them again and again:
Numerical Bible Notes"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:
Morrish Bible DictionaryScripture 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.
Moab from start to finish
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:
J T MawsonThe 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 remnant takes possession
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:
Numerical Bible NotesSo 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:
H. P. BarkerBoth 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.
Still waiting
History supplies the test. Ammonites and Moabites were still troubling God's people long after Zephaniah wrote:
C E StuartNone 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!
Summary
- 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.