Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, October 26th, 2024
the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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New Living Translation

Zephaniah 2:12

"You Ethiopians will also be slaughtered by my sword," says the Lord .

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ethiopia;   The Topic Concordance - Desolation;   Enemies;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ethiopia;   Nahum, Book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Zephaniah, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Zephaniah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Zephaniah (1);   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Day of Judgment;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Ethiopia;   Zion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Zephaniah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ethiopia;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
People of Ethiopia, this even means you! The Lord's sword will kill your people.
New American Standard Bible
"You also, Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword."
New Century Version
"You Cushites also will be killed by my sword."
Update Bible Version
You Ethiopians also, they are slain by my sword.
Webster's Bible Translation
Ye Cushites also, ye [shall be] slain by my sword.
Amplified Bible
"You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword."
English Standard Version
You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by my sword.
World English Bible
You Cushites also, you will be killed by my sword.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But and ye, Ethiopiens, schulen be slayn bi my swerd.
English Revised Version
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
Berean Standard Bible
You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword.
Contemporary English Version
People of Ethiopia, the sword of the Lord will slaughter you!
American Standard Version
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
Bible in Basic English
And you Ethiopians will be put to death by my sword.
Complete Jewish Bible
"You too, Ethiopians, will be put to death by my sword."
Darby Translation
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be the slain of my sword.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword.
King James Version (1611)
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shalbe slaine by my sword.
New Life Bible
"You also, O Ethiopians, will be killed by My sword."
New Revised Standard
You also, O Ethiopians, shall be killed by my sword.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye Morians also shalbe slaine by my sword with them.
George Lamsa Translation
You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by the sword.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Even ye Ethiopians, the slain of my sword were they!
Douay-Rheims Bible
You Ethiopians, also shall be slain with my sword.
Revised Standard Version
You also, O Ethiopians, shall be slain by my sword.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye Morians also shall perishe with my sworde.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Ye Ethiopians also are the slain of my sword.
Good News Translation
The Lord will also put the people of Ethiopia to death.
Christian Standard Bible®
You Cushites will also be slain by my sword.
Hebrew Names Version
You Kushi also, you will be killed by my sword.
King James Version
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
Lexham English Bible
You also, O Cushites, they shall be killed by my sword.
Literal Translation
You also, O Ethiopians, shall be pierced by My sword.
Young's Literal Translation
Also ye, O Cushim, pierced of My sword [are] they.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye Morias also shal perish with my swerde:
New English Translation
"You Ethiopians will also die by my sword!"
New King James Version
"You Ethiopians also, You shall be slain by My sword."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword."
Legacy Standard Bible
"You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword."

Contextual Overview

12 "You Ethiopians will also be slaughtered by my sword," says the Lord . 13 And the Lord will strike the lands of the north with his fist, destroying the land of Assyria. He will make its great capital, Nineveh, a desolate wasteland, parched like a desert. 14 The proud city will become a pasture for flocks and herds, and all sorts of wild animals will settle there. The desert owl and screech owl will roost on its ruined columns, their calls echoing through the gaping windows. Rubble will block all the doorways, and the cedar paneling will be exposed to the weather. 15 This is the boisterous city, once so secure. "I am the greatest!" it boasted. "No other city can compare with me!" But now, look how it has become an utter ruin, a haven for wild animals. Everyone passing by will laugh in derision and shake a defiant fist.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ethiopians: Isaiah 18:1-7, Isaiah 20:4, Isaiah 20:5, Isaiah 43:3, Jeremiah 46:9, Jeremiah 46:10, Ezekiel 30:4-9

my: Psalms 17:13, Isaiah 10:5, Isaiah 13:5, Jeremiah 47:6, Jeremiah 47:7, Jeremiah 51:20-23

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 32:41 - whet Isaiah 34:5 - my sword Jeremiah 12:12 - the sword Jeremiah 25:33 - the slain Ezekiel 21:3 - will draw Ezekiel 30:9 - messengers Ezekiel 30:24 - and put

Cross-References

Exodus 28:20
The fourth row will contain a blue-green beryl, an onyx, and a green jasper. All these stones will be set in gold filigree.
Exodus 39:13
The fourth row contained a blue-green beryl, an onyx, and a green jasper. All these stones were set in gold filigree.
Numbers 11:7
The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin.
Job 28:16
It's worth more than all the gold of Ophir, greater than precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
Ezekiel 28:13
You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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:

ye [shall be] slain by my sword; or, "the slain of my sword are they" i; 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. The destruction of these by the Assyrians is predicted, Isaiah 20:4.

h גם אתם כושים "etiam ad vos Aethiopes quod attinet", Piscator. i חללי חרבי המה "interfecti gladio meo ipsi", Montanus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword - Literally, “Ye Ethiopians also, the slain of My sword are they.” Having summoned them to His throne, God speaks of them, not to them anymore; perhaps in compassion, as elsewhere in indignation . The Ethiopians were not in any direct antagonism to God and His people, but allied only to their old oppressor, Egypt. They may have been in Pharaoh Necho’s army, in resisting which, as a subject of Assyria, Josiah was slain: they are mentioned Jeremiah 46:9 in that army which Nebuchadnezzar smote at Carchemish in the 4th year of Jehoiakim. The prophecy of Ezekiel implies rather, that Ethiopia should be involved in the calamities of Egypt, than that it should be itself invaded. “Great terror shall be in Ethiopia, ‘when the slain shall fall in Egypt’ Ezekiel 30:4.” “Ethiopia and Lybia and Lydia etc. and all the men of the land that is in league, shall fall ‘with these,’ by the sword” Ezekiel 30:5. “They also that ‘uphold Egypt’ shall fall” Ezekiel 30:6.

Syene, the frontier-fortress over against Ethiopia, is especially mentioned as the boundary also of the destruction. “Messengers” God says, “shall go forth from Me to make the careless Ethiopians afraid” Ezekiel 30:9, while the storm was bursting in its full desolating force upon Egypt. All the other cities, whose destruction is foretold, are cities of lower or upper Egypt .

But such a blow as that foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel must have fallen heavily upon the allies of Egypt. We have no details, for the Egyptians would not, and did not tell of the calamities and disgraces of their country. No one does. Josephus, however, briefly but distinctly says , that after Nebuchadnezzar had in the 23rd year of his reign, the 5th after the destruction of Jerusalem, “reduced into subjection Moab and Ammon, he invaded Egypt, with a view to subdue it,” “killed its then king, and having set up another, captured for the second time the Jews in it and carried them to Babylon.” The memory of the devastation by Nebuchadnezzar lived on apparently in Egypt, and is a recognized fact among the Muslim historians, who had no interest in the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, of which it does not appear that they even knew.

Bokht-nasar (Nebuchadnezzar), they say , “made war on the son of Nechas (Necho), slew him and ruined the city of Memphis” and many other cities of Egypt: he carried the inhabitants captive, without leaving one, so that Egypt remained waste forty years without one inhabitant.” Another says , The refuge which the king of Egypt granted to the Jews who fled from Nebuchadnezzar brought this war upon it: for he took them under his protection and would not give them up to their enemy. Nebuchadnezzar, in revenge, marched against the king of Egypt and destroyed the country.” “One may be certain,” says a good authority , “that the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar was a tradition generally spread in Egypt and questioned by no one.”

Ethiopia was then involved, as an ally, and as far as its contingent was concerned, in the war, in which Nebuchadnezzar desolated Egypt for those 40 years. But, although this fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel, Isaiah, some sixty years before Zephaniah, prophesied a direct conquest of Ethiopia. I “have given,” God says, “Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee” Isaiah 43:3. It lay in God’s purpose, that Cyrus should restore His own people, and that his ambition should find its vent and compensation in the lands beyond. It may be that, contrary to all known human policy, Cyrus restored the Jews to their own land, willing to bind them to himself, and to make them a frontier territory toward Egypt, not subject only but loyal to himself. This is quite consistent with the reason which he assigns; “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem which is in Judah” Ezra 1:2-3; and with the statement of Josephus, that he was moved thereto by “reading the prophecy which Isaiah left, 210 years before.”

It is, alas! nothing new to Christians to have mixed motives for their actions: the exception is to have a single motive, “for the glory of God.” The advantage to himself would doubtless flash at once on the founder of a great empire, though it did not suggest the restoration of the Jews. Egypt and Assyria had always, on either side, wished to possess themselves of Palestine, which lay between them. Anyhow, one Persian monarch did restore the Jews; his successor possessed himself of “Egypt, and part, at least, of Ethiopia.” Cyrus wished, it is related , “to war in person against Babylon, the Bactrians, the Sacae, and Egypt.” He perished, as is known, before he had completed the third of his purposed conquests. Cambyses, although after the conquest of Egypt he planned ill his two more distant expeditions, reduced “the Ethiopians bordering upon Egypt” ( “lower Ethiopia and Nubia”), and these “brought gifts” permanently to the Persian Sovereign. Even in the time of Xerxes, the Ethiopians had to furnish their contingent of troops against the Greeks. Herodotus describes their dress and weapons, as they were reviewed at Doriscus . Cambyses, then, did not lose his hold over Ethiopia and Egypt, when forced by the rebellion of Pseudo-Smerdis to quit Egypt.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zephaniah 2:12. Ye Ethiopians also — Nebuchadnezzar subdued these. See Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:4; Ezekiel 30:10. See also on Amos 9:1-7.


 
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