Zephaniah 2:13

Webster's Bible (1833)

He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the 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 It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"
• Isa 10:12 : 12 Therefore it shall happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on 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 will the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire.
• Nah 1:1 : 1 An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
• Nah 2:10-11 : 10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale. 11 Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid?
• Ps 83:8-9 : 8 Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah. 9 Do to them as you did to Midian, As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;
• Isa 11:11 : 11 It shall happen in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, who shall remain, 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 beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. 4 The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers of it ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth. 6 All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations. 7 Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty. 9 I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it. 10 Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 11 I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches; 14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit. 15 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers of it; 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 Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations. 18 To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
• Mic 5:6 : 6 They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, When he invades our land, And when he marches within our border.
• Nah 3:15 : 15 There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
• Nah 3:18-19 : 18 Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. 19 There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty?
• 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 there won't be room enough for them. 11 He will pass through the sea of affliction, And will strike the waves in the sea, And all the depths of the Nile will dry up; And the pride of Assyria will be brought down, And the scepter of Egypt will depart.