Charles Ellicott 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)

The breeding of nettles. —Better, an inheritance of nettles. The appropriateness of illustrating the fate of Moab and Ammon by that of the cities of the plain is all the more fitting because Lot, the ancestor of these nations, was an inhabitant of Sodom and narrowly escaped sharing in its destruction.

Ravages in Moab and Ammon were inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar in 582 B.C., probably in revenge for the murder of Gedaliah, the ruler he had appointed (Jos., Ant. 10.9.7). But the allusion here is to some later and more permanent work of destruction.

The national existence of both Moab and Ammon appears to have ceased long before the Christian era. Josephus’ assertion (Ant. 1.11.5), that in his own time the Moabites were “a very great nation” is simply unintelligible.

The extraordinary number of ruined towns in Moab has been noticed by every modern explorer.