Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha, the dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even for ever: the remnant of my people shall make a spoil of them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them.
Zephaniah 2:7 And it shall be the portion of him that shall remain of the house of Juda, there they shall feed: in the houses of Ascalon they shall rest in the evening: because the Lord their God will visit them, and bring back their captivity.
Zephaniah 2:8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon, with which they reproached my people, and have magnified themselves upon their borders.
Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha, the dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even for ever: the remnant of my people shall make a spoil of them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them.
Zephaniah 2:10 This shall befall them for their pride: because they have blasphemed, and have been magnified against the people of the Lord of hosts.
Zephaniah 2:11 The Lord shall be terrible upon them, and shall consume all the gods of the earth: and they shall adore him every man from his own place, all the islands of the Gentiles.
The verse centers on "therefore", "live", "saith", "lord", "hosts", "israel", "moab", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "therefore" and "live", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 8's "I have heard the reproach of Moab..." into verse 10's "This shall befall them for their pride...", so "therefore" and "live" belong inside that flow. In Zephaniah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "therefore" and "live" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.