After the flood, the Lord had said that he would never again curse the ground because of man
(Genesis 8:21). Was the Lord now breaking the covenant he established with Noah by pronouncing judgment upon the earth, a judgment worse than anything endured during the days of Noah, since not even the fish of the sea will be spared? Some explainers have gone in this direction.
But in response, the following is worth noting. When God established the covenant with Noah, he specified its duration: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). What Zephaniah now prophesies is the day when this current world order will no longer remain.
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3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.