a Cushite · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
ye
הֵֽמָּהHe.mah
H1992
they (only used when emphatic) · personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine plural
slain
חַֽלְלֵ֥יcha.Lei
H2491
pierced (especially to death) · adjective, masculine plural construct
sword
חַרְבִּ֖יchar.Bi
H2719
drought · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 30:4-9 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her m…
Isaiah 13:5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isaiah 18:1-7 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Isaiah 20:4-5 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with th…
Isaiah 43:3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Jeremiah 46:9-10 Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and th…
Jeremiah 51:20-23 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
Psalms 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zephaniah 2:12–end
The cup is going round, when Nebuchadnezzar is going on conquering and to conquer; and not only Israel's near neighbours, but those that lay more remote, must be reckoned with for the wrongs they have done to God's people; the Ethiopians and the Assyrians are here taken to task. 1. The Ethiopians, or Arabians, that had sometimes been a terror to Israel (as in Asa's time, Ch2 14:9), must now be reckoned with: They shall be slain by my sword, Zep 2:12. Nebuchadnezzar was God's sword, the instrument in his hand with which these and other enemies were subdued and punished, Psa 17:14. 2. The Assyrians, and Nineveh the head city of their monarchy, are next set to the bar, to receive their doom: He…
Fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar (God's sword, Isa 10:5) conquered Egypt, with which Ethiopia was closely connected as its ally (Jer 46:2-9; Eze 30:5-9).
Ye--literally, "They." The third person expresses estrangement; while doomed before God's tribunal in the second person, they are spoken of in the third as aliens from God.
Adam Clarke on Zephaniah 2:12
Ye Ethiopians also - Nebuchadnezzar subdued these. See Jer 46:2, Jer 46:9; Eze 30:4, Eze 30:10. See also on Amo 9:7 (note).
John Gill on 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,
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…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12 and following) But even you, Ethiopians, will be killed by my sword: and he will stretch out his hand over the North, and will destroy Assyria: and he will make a beautiful place desolate, and like a deserted wilderness. And flocks will lie down in the midst of it: all the beasts of the nations, and the pelican, and the hedgehog will dwell in its thresholds: the voice of the singer in the window, the raven on the top. For I will weaken its strength. This is the glorious city, dwelling in confidence, which said in her heart: I am, and there is no other besides me: how has she become a dwelling place of beasts in the wilderness? Everyone who passes by it will hiss and shake his hand. LXX: And you, Ethiopians, wounded by my sword will be; and I will stretch out my hand over the North and destroy Assyria, and make Nineveh a desolation, a dry and desolate land. And flocks will graze in its midst, and all the beasts of the earth; and chameleons and hedgehogs will lie down in its folds, and the beasts will cry out in their dens, and the ravens at its gates: for its height is like a cedar; this is the city devoted to evil, which dwells in hope and says in its heart: I am, and there is none after me; how has it become a pasture for beasts? Everyone who passes through it will hiss and shake their hands. The Jews interpret this whole chapter and the two preceding ones against the Philistines, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, referring to the coming of Christ, whom they believe will come at the end of the world to rebuild Jerusalem and deliver his people from the hand of the nations by which they are held captive. And this is what is meant by what is said: 'And men shall worship him, every man from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.' But not only the nations mentioned above, but also the Ethiopians and Assyrians and the city of Nineveh at that time must be laid waste and become a habitation for all the beasts of the earth, or as it is written in Hebrew, 'all the beasts of the nations.' From this, they believe it is intended to signify all the nations that will overthrow Nineveh. And because Nineveh, which means 'beautiful,' in the present place is referred to as beautiful in relation to Babylon. And everything that follows: the pelican and the hedgehog will dwell in its thresholds, and so on, rather applies to Babylon, of which the same desolation is…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ethiopia — Country of burnt faces; the Greek word by which the Hebrew Cush is rendered (Gen. 2:13; 2 Kings 19:9; Esther 1:1; Job 28:19; Ps. 68:31; 87:4), a country which lay to the south of Egypt, beginning at…
Nahum, Book of — Nahum prophesied, according to some, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz (B.C. 743). Others, however, think that his prophecies are to be referred to the latter half of the reign of Hezekiah (about…
Ethiopia · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zephaniah 2:12
12. Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
12. Etiam vos Ethiopes, interfecti gladio meo ipsi (alii vertunt, cum ipsis.)
The Prophet extends farther the threatened vengeance, and says, that God would also render to the Ethiopians the reward which they deserved; for they had also harassed the chosen people. But if God punished that nation, how could Ammon and Moab hope to escape? For how could God spare so great a cruelty, since he would visit with punishment the remotest nations? For the hatred of the Moabites and of the Ammonites, as we have said, was less excusable, because they were related to the children of Abraham. They ought, on this account, to have miti…
After this statement of the aim of the judgments of God, Zephaniah mentions two other powerful heathen nations as examples, to prove that the whole of the heathen world will succumb to the judgment. Zep 2:12. "Ye Cushites also, slain of my sword are they. Zep 2:13. And let him stretch out his hand toward the south, and destroy Asshur; and make Nineveh a barren waste, a dry place, like the desert. Zep 2:14. And herds lie down in the midst of it, all kinds of beasts in crowds: pelicans also and hedgehogs will lodge on their knobs; the voice of the singer in the window; heaps upon the threshold: for their cedar-work hath He made bare. Zep 2:15. This the city, the exulting one, the safely dwelli…
Ethiopians: Hebrew Cushites. While the Hebrew term can refer to any nation or people along the southern edge of the known world of that time, here it refers specifically to the Ethiopian dynasty that ruled Egypt.
Rashi on Zephaniah 2:12
You, too, Cushites When Israel was exiled there to the other side of the rivets of Cush.
