Albert Barnes Commentary Zephaniah 2:9

"Therefore as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall 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 shall make a prey of them, and the remnant of my nation shall inherit them." — Zephaniah 2:9 (ASV)

Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts - Life especially belongs to God, since He Alone is Underived Life. He has life in Himself (John 5:26). He is entitled “the living God,” as here, in tacit contrast with the dead idols of the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:26, 36), with idols generally (Jeremiah 10:10); or against the blasphemies of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:4, 16), the mockeries of scoffers (Jeremiah 23:36), of the awe of His presence (Deuteronomy 5:25 (Deuteronomy 5:26 in Hebrew)), His might for His people (Joshua 3:10); as the object of the soul’s longings, the nearness in the Gospel, children of the living God (Hosea 1:10 (Hosea 2:1 in Hebrew)). Since He can swear by no greater, He swore by Himself (Hebrews 6:13).

Since mankind is generally ready to believe that God means well with them, but is slow to think that He is in earnest in His threats, God employs this sanction of what He says twice only in regard to His promises or His mercy (Isaiah 49:18; Ezekiel 33:10); everywhere else to give solemnity to His threats (Numbers 14:28; Deuteronomy 32:40 (adding לעולס); Jeremiah 22:24; Ezekiel 5:11; 14:16, 18, 20; 16:48; (as Judge) 17:16, 19; 18:3; (in rebuke) 20:3, 31, 33; 33:27; 34:8; 35:11). In the same sense, I swear by Myself (Jeremiah 22:5; Jeremiah 49:13); has sworn by Himself (Amos 6:8); by the excellency of Jacob (Amos 8:7).

The appeal to the truth of His own being in support of the truth of His words is part of the grandeur of the prophet Ezekiel, in whom it chiefly occurs. God says in the same meaning, by Myself have I sworn, of promises which required strong faith.

Says the Lord of Hosts - Their blasphemies had denied the very being of God, as God, to whom they preferred or likened their idols. They had denied His power or that He could avenge, so He names His Name of power, the Lord of the hosts of heaven against their array against His border. I, the Lord of hosts who can fulfill what I threaten, and the God of Israel who Myself am wronged in My people, will make Moab as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah had once been flourishing cities on the borders of that land, which Israel had won from the Amorite. Moab and Ammon at different times took possession of this land, and to secure it, Ammon carried on that exterminating war. For they were to the east of the plain between Bethel and Ai, where Lot made his choice, in the plain or circle of Jordan (Genesis 13:1, 3, 11), the well-known title of the tract through which the Jordan flowed into the Dead Sea.

Near this lay Zoar (Ziara), beneath the caves where Lot, at whose prayer it had been spared, escaped from its wickedness.

Moab and Ammon had settled and in time spread from the spot where their forefathers had received their birth. Sodom, at least, must have been in that part of the plain which is to the east of the Jordan, since Lot was commanded to flee to the mountains with his wife and daughters, and there is no mention of the river, which would have been a hindrance (Genesis 19:17–23). Then it lay probably in that “broad belt of desolation” in the plain of Shittim, while Gomorrah and others of the Pentapolis may have lain in “the sulphur-sprinkled expanse” between El Riha (on the site of Jericho) and the Dead Sea, “covered with layers of salt and gypsum which overlie the loamy subsoil.” This literally fulfills the descriptions of Holy Writ (says an eye-witness): Brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein (Deuteronomy 29:23); a fruitful land turned into saltness (Psalms 107:34). No man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it (Jeremiah 49:18).

An elaborate system of artificial irrigation was carried through that cis-Jordanic tract, which decayed when it was depopulated, and that desolation prevents its restoration.

The doom of Moab and Ammon is of entire destruction beyond all recovery, rather than of universal barrenness. For the imagery that it should be the breeding of nettles (literally, ‘possession’) would not be literally compatible, except in different localities, with that of saltpits, which exclude all vegetation. Yet both are united in Moab. The soil continues, as of old, to be exuberantly fertile. However, in part, from the utter neglect and insecurity of agriculture, it is abandoned to rank and encumbering vegetation; elsewhere, due to the neglect of the former artificial irrigation system, it is wholly barren. The plant named is one of rank growth, since outcasts could lie concealed under it (Job 30:7). The prevailing authority seems to be for “mollach,” the Bedouin name of the “mallow.” Professor E. H. Palmer says, “which,” he adds, “I have seen growing in rank luxuriance in Moab, especially in the sides of deserted Arab camps.”

The residue of My people shall spoil them, and the remnant of My people shall possess them - Again, a remnant only, but even these shall prevail against them, as was first fulfilled in Judas Maccabaeus .