Zephaniah 2:13

Authorized King James Version (1611)

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

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְיֵ֤ט יָדוֹ֙ עַל־צָפ֔וֹן וִֽיאַבֵּ֖ד אֶת־אַשּׁ֑וּר וְיָשֵׂ֤ם אֶת־נִֽינְוֵה֙ לִשְׁמָמָ֔ה צִיָּ֖ה כַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃

Transliteration

And-yēṭ yādô ʿal-ṣāp̄ôn wîʾabbēd ʾeth-ʾaššûr wəyāśēm ʾeth-nînəwēh lišəmāmâ ṣiyyâ kammidbar

Grammar Details

• *yēṭ*: qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular with waw consecutive - and he will stretch out
• *yādô*: noun, feminine singular with 3rd person masculine singular suffix - his hand
• *ʿal-ṣāp̄ôn*: preposition + noun, feminine singular - against north
• *wîʾabbēd*: piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular with waw consecutive - and he will destroy
• *ʾeth-ʾaššûr*: direct object marker + proper noun - Assyria
• *wəyāśēm*: qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular with waw consecutive - and he will make
• *ʾeth-nînəwēh*: direct object marker + proper noun - Nineveh
• *lišəmāmâ*: preposition + noun, feminine singular - for desolation
• *ṣiyyâ*: noun, feminine singular - dry/parched region
• *kammidbar*: preposition + definite article + noun, masculine singular - like the wilderness

Word Meanings

• *yēṭ yādô*: stretch out his hand/extend his hand
• *ʿal-ṣāp̄ôn*: against the north/against the northern kingdom
• *wîʾabbēd*: and destroy/and cause to perish
• *lišəmāmâ*: for desolation/for waste/for horror
• *ṣiyyâ*: dry land/parched ground/drought

Referenced Verses

• Nah 3:7 : 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?
• Isa 10:12 : 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.
• Isa 10:16 : 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.
• Nah 1:1 : 1 ¶ The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
• Nah 2:10-11 : 10 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. 11 ¶ 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?
• Ps 83:8-9 : 8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. 9 ¶ Do unto them as [unto] the Midianites; as [to] Sisera, as [to] Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
• Isa 11:11 : 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.
• Ezek 31:3-9 : 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. 9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that [were] in the garden of God, envied him. 10 ¶ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: 14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. 15 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into hell with him unto [them that be] slain with the sword; and [they that were] his arm, [that] dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. 18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that be] slain by the sword. This [is] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
• Mic 5:6 : 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.
• Nah 3:15 : 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.
• Nah 3:18-19 : 18 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]. 19 [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?
• Zech 10:10-11 : 10 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. 11 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.