Bible passage: Zephaniah 2:8-11
Prophet: Zephaniah
Written: About 2,600 years ago
In Zephaniah, chapter 2, the prophet Zephaniah warns of judgment against the people of Judah and pronounces judgment against the nations surrounding them, which had a history of aggression.
In verses 8-11, Zephaniah focuses on Ammon and Moab, prophetically announcing that they will become a desolate wasteland.
Zephaniah lived during the rise of Babylonian empire, which later would conquer the land of Judah, destroying the city of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, about 2,600 years ago.
About five years after that conquest, the Babylonians attacked Ammon and Moab, as explained by the historian Josephus:
"And when they were there, God signified to the prophet that the king of Babylon was about making an expedition against the Egyptians, and commanded him to foretell to the people that Egypt should be taken, and the king of Babylon should slay some of them and, should take others captive, and bring them to Babylon; which things came to pass accordingly; for on the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he made an expedition against Celesyria; and when he had possessed himself of it, he made war against the Ammonites and Moabites; and when he had brought all these nations under subjection ... " - Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 10, Chapter 9, Section 7, as translated by William Whiston.
Josephus is a Jewish historian who lived during the first century of this era, about 1,900 years ago. He wrote several books about the history of Israelites and the land of Israel.
Whereas the people of Judah were able to later recover from the Babylonian conquest and retain their identity as a distinct group of people, the people of Ammon and Moab were not.
- Research and commentary is based on the book 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies. © Ray Konig and AboutBibleProphecy.com.
Here is Zephaniah 2:8-11 (NIV):
8 "I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted my people and made threats against their land.
9 Therefore, as surely as I live," declares the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, "surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah— a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever. The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land."
10 This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the Lord Almighty.
11 The Lord will be awesome to them when he destroys all the gods of the earth. Distant nations will bow down to him, all of them in their own lands.