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Zephaniah 2:8

in Zephaniah 2

“I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, wherewith they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

KJV

I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

This verse in Zephaniah 2

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Zephaniah · Written before 420.

(Ver. 8 onwards) I have heard the reproach of Moab and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, who have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God (God remains silent), the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Moab shall be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, a land of thorns and salt pits, and a desolation forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them; the survivors of my nation shall possess them.

This site's exposition

the revilings of the children of Ammon

on Zephaniah 2:8-10

Moab and Ammon, Lot's own descendants and Israel's oldest relatives among the nations, are judged for reproach and reviling rather than for the violence charged against Philistia, a sin of the mouth and the proud heart magnified against Israel's border rather than an invading army. Verse 9's sentence names them Sodom and Gomorrah, breeding nettles and saltpits in a perpetual desolation, the same cities whose destruction Moab and Ammon themselves descend from at Genesis 19, the bench reading the judgment as fitting its own ancestry. The residue and remnant of my people shall spoil them and possess them turns Moab and Ammon's own land over to the surviving Judahites, the same reversal already given the Philistine coast.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Nay, God not only takes notice of, but interests himself in the reproaches cast on his people, because they are his; and it is certain that those who look with disdain upon the people of the Lord of hosts thereby dishonour the Lord of hosts himself. See this very thing charged on Moab and Ammon, Ezek. xxv. They are both laid under the same doom.
I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Thus the old serpent spits his venom; and pride is at the bottom of it; it is in their pride that they have magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts, thinking themselves as good as they, as great, and every way as happy. It is the comtempt of the proud that God's people are filled with, Ps. cxxiii.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

I have heard the reproach of Moab - God punished them for the cruel part they had taken in the persecutions of the Jews; for when they lay under the displeasure of God, these nations insulted them in the most provoking manner. See on Amo 1:13 (note), and Gen 19:25 (note); Deu 29:23 (note); Isa 13:19 (note); Isa 34:13 (note); Jer 49:18 (note); Jer 50:40 (note).
I - Dionysius: “God, Who know all things, “I heard” that is, have known within Me, in My mind, not anew but from eternity, and now I shew in effect that I know it; wherefore I say that I hear, because I act after the manner of one who perceiveth something anew.” I, the just Judge, heard (see Isa 16:6; Jer 48:39; Eze 35:12-13). He was present and “heard,” even when, because He avenged not, He seemed not to hear, but laid it up in store with Him to avenge in the due time Deu 32:34-35. The reproach of Moab and the reviling of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people - Both words, “reproached, reviled,” mean, primarily, cutting speeches; both are intensive, and are used of blaspheming God as unable to help His people, or reviling His people as forsaken by Him. If directed against man, they are directed against God through man. So David interpreted the taunt of Goliah, “reviled the armies of the living God” (1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36, 1Sa 17:45, coll. 10. 25), and the Philistine cursed David “by his gods” 1Sa 17:43. In a Psalm David complains, “the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me” (Psa 69:10 (9)); and a Psalm which cannot be later than David, since it declares the national innocency from idolatry, connects with their defeats, the voice of him “that reproacheth and blasphemeth” (Psa 44:16 (17), joining the two words used here). The sons of Corah say, “with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, where is thy God?” Psa 42:10. So Asaph, “The enemy hath reproached, the foolish people hath blasphemed Thy Name” Psa 74:10, Psa 74:18; and, “we are become a reproach to our neighbors. Wherefore should the pagan say, where is their God? render unto our neighbors - the reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord” Psa 79:4, Psa 79:10, Psa 79:12. […]

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • שָׁמַ֙עְתִּי֙I have heard

    shama'tiH8085

  • חֶרְפַּ֣ת[the] reproach of

    cherpatH2781

  • מוֹאָ֔בMoab

    moavH4124

  • וְגִדּוּפֵ֖יand [the] reviling words of

    vegidufeiH1421

  • בְּנֵ֣י[the] people of

    beneiH11214930 times

  • עַמּ֑וֹןAmmon

    amonH5983

  • אֲשֶׁ֤רwho

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • חֵֽרְפוּ֙they have reproached

    cherefuH2778

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • עַמִּ֔יpeople my

    ʾamiH59711873 times

  • וַיַּגְדִּ֖ילוּand they have magnified themselves

    vaiyagdiluH1431

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H59215755 times

  • גְּבוּלָֽם׃territory their

    gevulamH1366

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Amos 1:13

    This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their…

    it leads to

    • Hosea 13:16

      Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

    • Ezekiel 25:2–7

      “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

    • Jeremiah 49:1–6

      Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Is he without heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Why have his people settled in their cities?

    • Isaiah 5:8

      Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 49:1

    Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Is he without heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Why have his people settled in their cities?

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 25:2–10

      “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

    • Deuteronomy 23:3

      No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

    • Amos 1:13–15

      This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their…

    • Zephaniah 2:8–11

      “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.

Where this verse is studied

About Zephaniah

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jerome, Commentary on Zephaniah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.