Zephaniah 2:12

“Ye Ethiopians also, etc.] Or, “as for ye Ethiopians also”f84 ; 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 <141409>2 Chronicles 14:9 21:16): ye [shall be] slain by my sword; or, “the slain of my sword are they”f85; 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…”

“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.”

“Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword - Literally, “Ye Ethiopians also, the slain of My sword are they.” Having summoned them to His throne, God speaks of them, not to them anymore; perhaps in compassion, as elsewhere in indignation . The Ethiopians were not in any direct antagonism to God and His people, but allied only to their old oppressor, Egypt. They may have been in Pharaoh Necho’s army, in resisting which, as a subject of Assyria, Josiah was slain: they are mentioned Jeremiah 46:9 in that army which Nebuchadnezzar smote at Carchemish in the 4th year of Jehoiakim. The prophecy of Ezekiel implies rather, that Ethiopia should be involved in the calamities of Egypt, than that…”

“By my sword - The Chaldeans are called God's sword; because God employed them. Zephaniah 2:13”

“2:12 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.”

“Ethiopians: Isa 18:1-7, Isa 20:4, Isa 20:5, Isa 43:3; Jer 46:9, Jer 46:10; Eze 30:4-9 my: Psa 17:13; Isa 10:5, Isa 13:5; Jer 47:6, Jer 47:7, Jer 51:20-23 Zephaniah 2:13”

“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…”