Zephaniah 2:9 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

As I live; the most solemn oath, fit for none but God himself to use: see Ezekiel 14:16. Saith the Lord of hosts, who have all things at my disposal, and can arm all creatures against these proud revilers. The God of Israel, who by covenant am Israel's God, and Israel is my people, in whose reproaches I am reproached. Shall be as Sodom: this is a proverbial speech in Scripture phrase to speak great destruction, as Isaiah 1:9. Moab and Ammon were not destroyed by fire, as Sodom and Gomorrah; but the next words are an explication of these. The breeding of nettles; not cultivated, but run over with nettles, as if it were only to breed them. And salt-pits; a salt, dry, barren earth, fit only to dig salt out of. A perpetual desolation; never more to be manured and inhabited, or not for a long, a very long time. The residue; either the few left with Gedaliah, or the remnant that returned out of Babylon. Shall spoil them; provoked by the injuries of Moab and Ammon, shall take arms, overcome, and spoil them. Shall possess them; settle upon their lands, and dwell in those parts that are fit for habitation.