ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף צפניה 2:9

like the roaring of the cisterns Like the sound of the roar of water gathering and falling into the cisterns in the river, so will those coming to plunder and pillage, roar. מַשַּׁק is an expression of roaring. Comp. (Prov. 28:15) “A roaring lion and a growling (שׁוֹקֵק) bear.” Also (Zeph. 2:9), “The noise (מִמְשַׁק) of the thorns.” When the wind blows on the thorns, and they knock against one another, they produce a sound. Comp. also, (Joel 2:9) “In the city they roar (יָשֹׁקּוּ).”

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Ki Teytze 2: There is no commandment which is easier to fulfill than sending away the mother bird. Compare the reward offered by the Torah for a commandment which requires so little effort to fulfill: “in order that it will be good for you and will prolong your days.” We may appreciate this better by reference to a parable. A king employed a number of labourers to work in his field to plant there and he did not tell them exactly what their wages would be. In the evening, every labourer who had planted a tree was given one gold coin. When the labourers observed this (extraordinarily large payment) they were amazed and concluded that if planting a single tree, an undemanding task, was worth a gold coin to the king, how much greater would be the payment for labourers who planted a number of trees per day. The commandment of שלוח הקן, the sending off of the mother bird, is similar. It does not require financial cost in order for us to fulfill it and yet the reward is great. We may extrapolate from that what kind of reward G’d will grant us for the fulfillment of commandments which require the spending of a lot of money, physical exertion, and possibly involve saving someone’s life. The reason that G’d spelled out the reward for only a few of the commandments is to encourage us to fulfill all of them. We may compare the commandments to trees producing fruit. Some tree may produce a fruit which is superior to the fruit of another tree. Similarly, there are commandments the reward for which is greater than the reward for fulfilling some other commandment.
We know, for instance that the reward for being hospitable and providing food and shelter for strangers is having children. We have proof of this from our matriarch Sarah (Genesis 18, 6-10) and we also know this from the woman in Shunam who was blessed with a child by a promise from the prophet Elisha whom she hosted on a regular basis (Kings II, 4-16). Other commandments such as honoring father and mother are rewarded by long life (Exodus 20,12), as is the commandment to send away the mother bird even though the principal meaning of this long life is understood to refer to life in a world beyond this terrestrial life on earth,
[In the following list of verses from scripture the author illustrates allegorically the eventual fate of the Gentile nations as retribution for their not having observed this commandment in their relationship to the Jewish people. Ed.]. Isaiah 16,2 writes: “like fugitive birds, like nestlings driven away, Moav’s villagers linger by the fords of Arnon.” The prophet refers to Jeremiah 17,11: “like a partridge hatching what she did not lay, so is one who amasses wealth by unjust means, in the middle of his life it will leave him, and in the end he will be proved a fool.” Immediately after this Jeremiah continues: “O throne of Glory exalted from of old. Our sacred shrine! O Hope of Israel, O Lord!” How do these verses form a continuation from what the prophet wrote before? The partridge brings eggs belonging to other species of birds and broods on them until they hatch from their shells. When these chicks hatch, the chicks feed on the partridge plucking its feathers and making it defenseless until they eventually devour it. Who is the cause of the partridge’s misfortune? None other than the partridge itself. If it had not stolen other birds’ eggs this would never have happened to it. This is what is going to happen to the nations of the world who dared stretch out their talons against the throne of G’d, i.e. destroy our Temple. They destroyed and burned G’d’s Sanctuary, exiled the Jewish people and, as a result, in the words of Tzefaniah 2,9, “Assuredly, as I live, declares the Lord of Hosts, the G’d of Israel: ‘Moav shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah; clumps of weeds and patches of salt and desolation evermore. The remnants of My people shall plunder them, the remainder of My nation shall possess them.’” Thus far the Midrash.

In the city they clatter Heb. יָשֹׁקּוּ. This is an expression of making a din. Cf. (Isa. 33:4) “like the roaring (כְּמַשַּׁק) of the cisterns”; (Prov. 28: 15) “A growling (שּׁוֹקֵק) bear”; (Zeph. 2:9) “the clattering of (מִמְשַׁק) the thorns.” Jonathan, however, renders it as an expression of arms (נֶשֶק). They are armed.