SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:14
Y rebaños de ganado harán en ella majada, todas las bestias de los gentiles; el onocrótalo también y el erizo dormirán en sus umbrales; su voz cantará en las ventanas; y asolación será en las puertas, porque su enmaderamiento de cedro será descubierto.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 2:14
Verse 14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her] Nineveh was so completely destroyed, that its situation is not at present even known. The present city of Mossoul is supposed to be in the vicinity of the place where this ancient city stood.
The cormorant taq kaath; and the bittern, dpq kippod. These Newcome translates, "The pelican and the porcupine." Their voice shall sing in the windows] The windows shall be all demolished; wild fowl shall build their nests in them, and shall be seen coming from their sills, and the fine cedar ceilings shall be exposed to the weather, and by and by crumble to dust. See the note on Isaiah xxxiv. 11, 14, where nearly the same terms are used.
I have in another place introduced a remarkable couplet quoted by Sir W.
Jones from a Persian poet, which speaks of desolation in nearly the same terms.
"The spider holds the veil in the palace of Caesar: The owl stands sentinel in the watchtower of Afrasiab.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her , etc.] In the midst of the city of Nineveh; in the streets of it, where houses stood, and people in great numbers walked; but now only should be seen the cottages of shepherds, and flocks of sheep feeding or lying down, as is before observed of the sea coast of the Philistines, ( Zephaniah 2:6): all the beasts of the nations ; that is, all sorts of beasts, especially wild beasts, in the several parts of the world, should come and dwell here; instead of kings and princes, nobles, merchants, and the great men thereof, who once here inhabited, now there should be beasts of prey, terrible to come nigh unto; for these are to be understood properly and literally, and not figuratively, of men, for their savageness and cruelty, comparable to beasts: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; of the doors of the houses in Nineveh: or, “on its pomegranates” f86 ; the figures of these being often put on chapiters, turrets, pinnacles, pillars, and posts in buildings, and over porches of doors; and on these those melancholy and doleful creatures here mentioned, which delight in solitary places, should take up their abode. The “cormorant” is the same with the “corvus aquaticus”, or “sea raven”, about the size of a goose; it builds not only among rocks, but often on trees: what is called the “shagge” is a species of it, or the lesser cormorant, a water fowl common on our northern coasts; is somewhat larger than a common duck, and builds on trees as the common cormorant f87 . Bochart takes it to be the “pelican” which is here meant; and indeed, whatever bird it is, it seems to have its name from vomiting; and this is what naturalists observe of the pelican, that it swallows down shell fish, which, being kept awhile in its stomach, are heated, and then it casts them up, which then open easily, and it picks out the flesh of them: and it seems to delight in desolate places, since it is called the pelican of the wilderness, ( <19A206> Psalm 102:6). Isidore says it is an Egyptian bird, dwelling in the desert by the river Nile, from whence it has its name; for it is called “canopus Aegyptus”; and the Vulgate Latin version renders the word here “onocrotalus”, the same with the pelican; and Montanus translates it the “pelican”; and so do others. The “bittern” is a bird of the heron kind; it is much the size of a common heron; it is usually found in sedgy and reedy places near water, and sometimes in hedges; it makes a very remarkable noise, and, from the singularity of it, the common people imagine it sticks its beak in a reed or in the mud, in order to make it; hence it is sometimes called the “mire drum” f91 . It is said it will sometimes make a noise like a bull, or the blowing of a horn, so as to be heard half a German mile, or one hour’s journey; hence it is by some called “botaurus”, as if “bootaurus”, because it imitates the bellowing of a bull f92 .
The Tigurine version renders it the “castor” or “beaver” f93 ; but Bochart f94 takes it to be the “hedgehog”; and so the word is rendered in the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and by others: which is a solitary creature, and drives away all other animals from society with it by its prickles: [their] voice shall sing in the windows : of desolate houses, the inhabitants being gone who used to be seen looking out of them; but now these creatures before named should dwell here, and utter their doleful sounds, who otherwise would not have come near them: desolation [shall be] in the thresholds ; there being none to go in and out over them. The Septuagint version, and which is followed by the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions, render it, “the ravens shall be in its gates”: mistaking bdh , “desolation”, for br[ , “a raven”: for he shall uncover the cedar work ; the enemy Nebuchadnezzar, or Nabopolassar, when he should take the city, would unroof the houses panelled with cedar, and expose all the fine cedar work within to the inclemencies of the air, which would soon come to ruin. All these expressions are designed to set forth the utter ruin and destruction of this vast and populous city; and which was so utterly destroyed, as Lucian says, that there is no trace of it to be found; and, according to modern travellers, there are only heaps of rubbish to be seen, which are conjectured to be the ruins of this city; (see Gill on “Na 1:8”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 4-15 - Those are really in a woful condition who have the word of the Lor against them, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. God wil restore his people to their rights, though long kept from them. It ha been the common lot of God's people, in all ages, to be reproached an reviled. God shall be worshipped, not only by all Israel, and the strangers who join them, but by the heathen. Remote nations must be reckoned with for the wrongs done to God's people. The sufferings of the insolent and haughty in prosperity, are unpitied and unlamented But all the desolations of flourishing nations will make way for the overturning Satan's kingdom. Let us improve our advantages, and expec the performance of every promise, praying that our Father's name may be hallowed every where, over all the earth __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ורבצו 7257 בתוכה 8432 עדרים 5739 כל 3605 חיתו 2416 גוי 1471 גם 1571 קאת 6893 גם 1571 קפד 7090 בכפתריה 3730 ילינו 3885 קול 6963 ישׁורר 7891 בחלון 2474 חרב 2721 בסף 5592 כי 3588 ארזה 731 ערה׃ 6168
