Zephaniah 2:14
“And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Nineveh's ruins will become a haunt of wild animals and birds, its splendor exposed and abandoned.
What Does Zephaniah 2:14 Mean?
The prophet paints Nineveh's desolation in haunting detail. Flocks and wild beasts lie down in the heart of the city. Birds roost in the ruined columns and call through the empty windows. Desolation sits in the doorways, and the proud cedar paneling is stripped bare and exposed. The palace becomes a wilderness.
There is a strange and solemn beauty in this scene, the silence where a roaring city once stood. The grandeur that Assyria built to last forever becomes a nesting place for birds. This is what becomes of glory raised against God. The cedar work, once a sign of luxury and power, is laid open to the weather. The verse invites the reader to measure all earthly splendor against eternity, and to build instead on what God will not bring to ruin, the kingdom that cannot be shaken.
In the Original Language
qaath (קָאַת), 'cormorant' -- a wilderness bird associated with desolate, abandoned places, here nesting amid Nineveh's ruins.