Zephaniah 2 · Verse 13

Zephaniah 2:13

And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

Zephaniah 2:13, King James Version

Zephaniah 2:13 in other translations

BSB	And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
WEB	He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness.
ASV	And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness.
YLT	And He stretcheth His hand against the north, And doth destroy Asshur, And he setteth Nineveh for a desolation, A dry land like a wilderness.
DARBY	And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, a place of drought like the wilderness.
BBE	And his hand will be stretched out against the north, for the destruction of Assyria; and he will make Nineveh unpeopled and dry like the waste land.
Webster	And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

What does Zephaniah 2:13 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

13. Here he passes suddenly to the north. Nineveh was destroyed by Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, 625 B.C. The Scythian hordes, by an inroad into Media and thence in the southwest of Asia (thought by many to be the forces described by Zephaniah, as the invaders of Judea, rather than the Chaldeans), for a while interrupted Cyaxares' operations; but he finally succeeded. Arbaces and Belesis previously subverted the Assyrian empire under Sardanapalus (that is, Pul?), 877 B.C.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 13 He will - destroy Assyria - He will overthrow the empire, and Nineveh, their metropolitan city. See on Jonah and Nahum.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Zephaniah 2:4-15

Those are really in a woful condition who have the word of the Lord against them, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. God will restore his people to their rights, though long kept from them. It has been the common lot of God's people, in all ages, to be reproached and reviled. God shall be worshipped, not only by all Israel, and the strangers who join them, but by the heathen. Remote nations must be…

Read the full comment on Zephaniah 2:4-15 →

Zephaniah 2:13 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וְיֵ֤טve.Yetand he may stretch outH5186

יָדוֹ֙ya.Dohand hisH3027

עַל\־'al-onH5921

צָפ֔וֹןtza.Fon[the] northH6828

וִֽיאַבֵּ֖דvi.'a.Bedso he may destroyH6

אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853

אַשּׁ֑וּר'a.ShurAssyriaH804

וְיָשֵׂ֤םve.ya.Semand he may makeH7760

אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853

נִֽינְוֵה֙ni.ne.VehNinevehH5210

לִשְׁמָמָ֔הlish.ma.Mah<into> a wasteH8077

צִיָּ֖הtzi.Yaha dry regionH6723

כַּמִּדְבָּֽר\׃ka.mid.Barlike the wildernessH4057

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Zephaniah 2:13

Nahum 3:7
And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
Nahum 3:18-19
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
Nahum 1:1
The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Isaiah 10:12
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
Isaiah 10:16
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
Micah 5:6
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
Isaiah 11:11
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Zechariah 10:10-11
I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.
Ezekiel 31:3-18
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. …
Nahum 2:10-11
She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
Nahum 3:15
There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
Psalms 83:8-9
Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

he will.
Ps 83:8,9; Isa 10:12,16; 11:11; Eze 31:3-18
will make.
Na 1:1; 2:10,11; 3:7,15,18,19; Zec 10:10,11

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Zephaniah 2:12
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
Zephaniah 2:13
And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
Zephaniah 2:14
And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.

Read all of Zephaniah 2

Zephaniah 2:13 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Y extenderá su mano sobre el aquilón, y destruirá al Assur, y pondrá á Nínive en asolamiento, y en secadal como un desierto.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Et il étendra sa main vers le nord, et il détruira l’Assyrie, et il changera Ninive en désolation, en un lieu aride comme un désert.
German Elberfelder 1871	Und er wird seine Hand gegen Norden ausstrecken, und wird Assyrien vernichten und Ninive zur Wüste machen, dürr wie die Steppe.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Et extendet manum suam super aquilonem, et perdet Assur, et ponet speciosam in solitudinem, et in invium, et quasi desertum.