The Lord is here referring to events that happened in the past, where the Lord cut off nations, put their battlements to ruin, laid waste their streets, destroyed fortified cities, so that there is no longer any inhabitant therein. Which nations
does the Lord have in view? The reference is general, and so caution must be taken in determining what nations are in view. But it could very likely be that the Lord is referring to nothing less than the conquest of Canaan. At that time, many generations earlier, the Lord looked upon the iniquity of the Canaanites that had reached its fullness (see Genesis 15:12–17). The Lord brought his people into Canaan, and he cut off the nations therein, he laid waste their battlements, and he poured out his judgment to such an extent that in time, there was not any inhabitant left.
The non-specific nations
is probably telling because the overall point with verse 6 in its context is that the Lord had shown Jerusalem the defeat and end of many nations in its history. Therefore, Judah has had plenty of opportunity to see the Lord at work in his justice. And so they should have feared the Lord. With these words the Lord shows his people that he has been calling them to repent by way of many examples. For he has shown his wrath repeatedly by punishing one nation after another. That Judah needs this reminder says that though they have been so often warned, there was no hope for a people, who could not have been instructed by the calamities of others, to seek to return to God’s favour. For God here complains that he had in vain punished neighbouring nations, and made them examples, in order to recall the Jews to himself…. We may hence learn that they were wholly blinded by their wickedness.
1
The Lord in Zephaniah 3:6 summarizes what he will do at the end of days, by referencing what he had done in the past. If these judgments have befallen others, should not Jerusalem have learned that she too would be called to account for her conduct?
6 “I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant.