2:13 destroy Assyria. Mighty Assyria and its magnificent capital of Nineveh, the greatest in the world for many years, were still powerful in the time of Zephaniah. God, however, soon used Babylon—allied with the Medes and Scythians—to destroy it, just as Zephaniah had prophesied. The region has been “dry like a wilderness” ever since. The entire book of Nahum was likewise directed against Assyria.

2:14 cormorant and the bittern. Respectively, a large bird and a small bird.