This verse summarizes the fate of Nineveh. This is the exultant city: the meaning is given somewhat more fully in Good News Translation as “That is what will happen to the city that is so proud of its own power.” The words that dwelt secure are also expressed in more detail in Good News Translation as “and thinks it is safe,” that is, safe from enemy attack.

That said to herself, “I am and there is none else”: the city is made to speak as though it were a person, and the words spoken are quoted directly. In a case like this the city stands for its inhabitants. Good News Translation drops the figure of speech and turns the quotation into indirect speech, saying “Its people think that their city is the greatest in the world.”

The third part of the verse is an exclamation which repeats the main points of the two previous verses. What a desolation she has become echoes the second half of verse 13, and a lair for wild beasts! echoes verse 14. The verbs are probably to be understood as “prophetic perfects,” in which the prophet speaks about things which have not yet happened as though they were already past. Several modern translations retain past tenses (Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version), but Good News Translation uses the future, “will become … will rest,” to make clearer that this is a prediction about the future (compare Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The words desolation or “desolate” are difficult to translate in many languages. Another way to express the clause is “It will become a complete ruin.”

In the last part of the verse, the prophet states the reaction of those who see the city in its ruined state. Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist. These were gestures of horror, scorn, and revulsion (compare, for instance, 1 Kgs 9.8; Lam 2.15; Micah 6.16), and Good News Translation gives their plain meaning with “Everyone who passes by will shrink back in horror.” If the gestures of hissing and shaking the fist carry the right meaning in the receptor culture, a literal translation is possible here. However, in certain cultures other gestures or bodily movements such as pointing a finger or shaking the head may be used to signify horror or scorn. Translators may mention such gestures as long as they do not involve anything incompatible with Biblical culture. If no such solution is possible, then translators will do better to follow the example of Good News Translation and give the plain meaning without mentioning the actual gestures.

Possible restructurings of the whole verse are:

• That is what will happen to the buildings of the city because its people are proud of their power and think they are safe (from danger). They consider that their city is the greatest in the world, but it will become a complete ruin where wild animals live. Everyone who passes by will show how scornful they are, and how much they detest this city.

Or:

• The people of this city are so proud that they think nothing can harm them. They say to themselves, “Our city is greater than all others.” But that city will fall and will become utterly desolate. Only wild animals will live there, and everyone who passes by will show their scorn and horror.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Zephaniah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .