Zephaniah 2.12-The Lord Declares He Will Kill the Cushites with His Sword
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 25, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 2:12-The Lord Declares He Will Kill the Cushites with His Sword
Lesson # 54
Zephaniah 2:12 “You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword.” (NASB95)
This verse is composed of the following: (1) adverb gam (גַּם), “also” (2) second person masculine plural pronominal suffix ʾattem (אַתֶּם), “you” (3) masculine plural ethnic noun kûšî (כּוּשִׁי), “O Ethiopians” (4) masculine plural construct form of the noun ḥālāl (חָלָל), “slain by” (5) masculine singular construct form of the noun ḥereb (חֶרֶב), “sword” (6) first person singular independent personal pronoun ʾǎnî (אֲנִי), “my” (7) third person masculine plural form of the personal pronoun hēm (הֵם), which is not translated.
The prophet Zephaniah is employing the figure of asyndeton and this time it is to emphasize the solemn nature of the prophecy recorded here in Zephaniah 2:12, which quotes the God of Israel promising to kill the people of Ethiopia through war.
The second person masculine plural pronominal suffix ʾattem means “all of you” and refers to the Ethiopian people as a corporate unit.
This is indicated by the word which modifies it which is the noun kûšî which is also in the plural and literally means “Cushites.”
Here in Zephaniah 2:12, the RSV, NRSV, NASB95, NLT and NET Bibles all translate the word kûšî as “Ethiopians” whereas the ESV, LEB, NIV, and TNIV translate the word “Cushites.”
More than likely both Ethiopia and Sudan are being referred to by this designation.
Since the Ethiopians descended from Cush we will translate the word here in Zephaniah 2:12 as “Cushites.”
The adverb gam means “also” since the word is used in an adjunctive sense in that it introduces an addition indicating that in addition to the God of Israel destroying the nations of Moab and Ammon, He will also destroy the nation of Ethiopia or Cush.
The noun ḥālāl means “killed” since it is technical term for those individuals killed in combat or in war.
It speaks of someone who has died a premature death in the sense that they do not live to an old age but die relatively young because of being killed in war.
The construct state of this noun means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the noun ḥereb which means “sword” since it pertains to a metal weapon of war whose shape was straight and double-edged.
It is used here as a figurative extension of a sword as metonymy for battle or war (cf. Lev. 26:25; 2 Chron. 29:9; Jer. 14:15; 24:10; Ezek. 7:15; 33:2ff.).
The genitive relation between the nouns noun ḥālāl and ḥereb is a genitive of means which states the mechanism or instrument by means of which the action implied by the construct noun.
This would indicate that God is promising that the people of Cush or Ethiopia will be killed “by means of” the sword, i.e. war.
The construct state of this noun means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the first person singular independent personal pronoun ʾǎnî, which “my” and refers of course to the God of Israel.
Zephaniah 2:12 “Also, all of you Cushites, they are killed by My sword!” (My translation)
Zephaniah 2:4-15 contains a series of prophetic declarations which are directed at the various Gentile pagan nations surrounding the kingdom of Judah in the seventh century B.C.
All of these nations were in existence in the seventh century B.C. but will not be during the seventieth week of Daniel.
These prophetic declarations against Judah’s Gentile pagan neighbors were to serve as motivation for the people of Judah and everyone living in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world during the seventh century B.C. to obey the commands in Zephaniah 2:1.
The motivation for the faithful Jews to obey the Lord’s commands in Zephaniah 2:3 was to remain faithful is found in verse 3 in that they will be spared if they remain faithful.
Thus the prophet’s statements in verses 4-15 are serving as further motivation for the Jews living in the seventh century B.C. to obey the commands in verses 1 and 3.
Verse 2 provides a negative motivation in the sense that God won’t judge those who are unfaithful Jews who assemble to repent as a corporate unit and He will not judge those Jews who continue to remain faithful to Him.
However, verses 4-15 provide positive motivation in the sense that God is attempting to motivate them to obey His commands to assemble and repent and remain faithful.
Therefore, all of these two prophecies were designed to motivate unregenerate Jews and Jewish believers in apostasy to repent in order to take advantage of God judging the Gentiles nations surrounding them and to experience blessing from God.
They were designed to move these Jews to meditate upon this announcement of judgment against their Gentile neighbors for the purpose of personal application, which is God wants them to repent.
For the unregenerate, this would involve changing their attitude toward the Lord and trusting in Him.
For the regenerate, this would involve confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with Him followed by obedience to His Word to maintain this fellowship.
These nations mentioned in Zephaniah 2:4-15 were being held accountable by God for their idolatry and for murder and injustice as well as sins against the kingdom of Judah and when Israel was not a divided kingdom but a united one when it was known only as Israel.
God indicts these nations for their treatment of Israel.
This announcement of God’s intention to judge these Gentiles nations surrounding Judah if they don’t repent makes clear to the citizens of Judah that God is not only sovereign over their nation but all the nations surrounding them.
The Philistines resided to the west of Judah, Moab and Ammon to the east, Assyria to the north and Ethiopia to the south.
Now, here in Zephaniah 2:12, the announcement of judgment against Judah’s Gentile pagan neighbors resumes after this brief interlude in Zephaniah 2:11.
Verse 12 is quoting the God of Israel once again who addresses the people of Cush or Ethiopia emphatically promising that they will also like the Philistines, Cretans, Moabites and Ammonites be killed by means His sword, which is metonymy for war.
Cush generally refers to the region of the Upper Nile and is equated with the region the Egyptians called Nubia, its name derived from the Egyptian word for “gold.”
The name “Cush” first appears in the Bible in Genesis 10:6 and refers to the son of Noah’s son Ham and the father of Sheba, Raamah, Sabteca and Nimrod.
The descendants of “Cush” were originally connected to Babylonia since it was equated with ancient city-kingdom of Kish in lower Babylonia where emperors of the third millennium B.C. to their title as “kings of the world.”
The descendants of “Cush” include: Ethiopians, Sudanese, Africans, Bushmen, Pygmies, Australian Aborigines and New Guineans.
Before Zephaniah’s time, the Cushite dynasty which ruled Egypt suffered greatly at the hands of the Assyrians.
After the battle of Carchemish, Ethiopia probably suffered as an ally of Egypt at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek 30:4).
Thus, we have a fulfillment of this prophecy against Cush with the Babylonian invasions under Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Ezek. 30:4-5, 9, 24-25).