Zephaniah 2:12

12 Also you Ethiopians, you too will die - I'll see to it."

Zephaniah 2:12 Meaning and Commentary

Zephaniah 2:12

Ye Ethiopians also
Or, "as for ye Ethiopians also" {h}; not the Ethiopians in Africa beyond Egypt, at a distance from the land of Israel, and the countries before mentioned; but the inhabitants of Arabia Chusea, or Ethiopia, which lay near to Moab and Ammon; these should not escape, but suffer with their neighbours, who sometimes distressed the people of the Jews, and made war with them, being nigh them; see ( 2 Chronicles 14:9 ) ( 21:16 ) : ye [shall be] slain by my sword;
or, "the slain of my sword are they" ^F9; R. Japhet thinks here is a defect of the note of similitude "as", which should be supplied thus, "ye" are, or shall be, "the slain of my sword", as they; as the Moabites and Ammonites; that is, these Ethiopians should be slain as well as they by the sword of Nebuchadnezzar; which is called the sword of God, because he was an instrument in the hand of God for punishing the nations of the earth. This was fulfilled very probably when Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, with whom Ethiopia was confederate, as well as near unto it, ( Jeremiah 46:1 Jeremiah 46:2 ) . The destruction of these by the Assyrians is predicted, ( Isaiah 20:4 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Myvwk Mta Mg) "etiam ad vos Aethiopes quod attinet", Piscator.
F9 (hmh ybrx yllx) "interfecti gladio meo ipsi", Montanus.

Zephaniah 2:12 In-Context

10 This is what they get for their bloated pride, their taunts and mockeries of the people of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

11 God will be seen as truly terrible - a Holy Terror. All earth-made gods will shrivel up and blow away; And everyone, wherever they are, far or near, will fall to the ground and worship him.

12 Also you Ethiopians, you too will die - I'll see to it."

13 Then God will reach into the north and destroy Assyria. He will waste Nineveh, leave her dry and treeless as a desert.

14 The ghost town of a city, the haunt of wild animals, Nineveh will be home to raccoons and coyotes - they'll bed down in its ruins. Owls will hoot in the windows, ravens will croak in the doorways - all that fancy woodwork now a perch for birds.