Yahweh’s word which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah. I will utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam, those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him. Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests. It will happen in the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons, and all those who are clothed with foreign clothing. In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit. In that day, says Yahweh, there will be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off. It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in their heart, “Yahweh will not do good, neither will he do evil.” Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, but won’t drink their wine. The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh’s word which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.
I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.
I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,
those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam,
those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.
Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests.
It will happen in the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons, and all those who are clothed with foreign clothing.
In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.
In that day, says Yahweh, there will be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills.
Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.
It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in their heart, “Yahweh will not do good, neither will he do evil.”
Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, but won’t drink their wine.
The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements.
I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
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The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;
And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Show all 3 translations
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THE WORD of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the earth, saith the LORD.
I will consume man and beast, I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the face of the earth, saith the LORD.
And I will stretch out My hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the idolatrous priests with the priests;
And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship, that swear to the LORD and swear by Malcam;
Them also that are turned back from following the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired after Him.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD; for the day of the LORD is at hand, for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath consecrated His guests.
And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap over the threshold, that fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
And in that day, saith the LORD, Hark! a cry from the fish gate, and a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills.
Wail, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off.
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps; and I will punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart: 'The LORD will not do good, neither will He do evil.'
Therefore their wealth shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation; yea, they shall build houses, but shall not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink the wine thereof.
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD, wherein the mighty man crieth bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the horn and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high towers.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy; for He will make and end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the earth.
Cross-references (289)
- Habakkuk 2:20 (v7) But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”
- Isaiah 1:4 (v6) Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have…
- Jeremiah 2:13 (v6) “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken…
- Zechariah 2:13 (v7) Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
- Jeremiah 15:6 (v6) You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Ezekiel 30:3 (v14) For the day is near, even Yahweh’s day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.
- Amos 6:1 (v12) Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations,…
- Zephaniah 3:8 (v18) “Therefore wait for me”, says Yahweh, “until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may…
- Malachi 4:5 (v14) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Ezekiel 7:19 (vv3, 13, 18) They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to…
- Jeremiah 2:17 (vv6, 17) “Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
- Zephaniah 1:7 (vv10, 14) Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his…
- Jeremiah 48:11 (v12) “Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone…
- Amos 5:11 (v13) Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in…
- Zephaniah 1:14 (v7) The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
- 2 Kings 17:33 (v5) They feared Yahweh, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
- Proverbs 11:4 (v18) Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
- Isaiah 9:13 (v6) Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.
- Isaiah 34:6 (v7) Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for…
- Jeremiah 3:10 (v6) Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 19:13 (v5) The houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, will be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on…
- Jeremiah 46:10 (v7) For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and…
- Ezekiel 3:20 (v6) “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die.…
- Hosea 11:7 (v6) My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (v14) For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will…
- Hebrews 10:38-39 (v6) But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to…
- Joel 2:11 (vv7, 14, 15) Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is…
- Micah 7:13 (vv2, 17) Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
- 1 Samuel 15:11 (v6) “It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel…
- 2 Kings 22:16-17 (v2) “Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has…
- 2 Chronicles 33:14 (v10) Now after this, he built an outer wall to David’s city, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate. He…
- Psalms 10:4 (v6) The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God.
- Psalms 125:5 (v6) But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
- Isaiah 15:4 (v14) Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within…
- Isaiah 24:21 (v8) It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
- Isaiah 33:7 (v14) Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
- Jeremiah 1:2 (v1) Yahweh’s word came to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
- Ezekiel 7:12 (v14) The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.
- Ezekiel 8:12 (v12) Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery?…
- Hosea 4:15-16 (v6) “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As…
- Micah 6:15 (v13) You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.
- Zephaniah 1:2-3 (v18) I will utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the…
- Hebrews 2:3 (v6) how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those…
- 2 Peter 2:18-22 (v6) For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping…
- Isaiah 22:4-5 (vv10, 14) Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. For…
- Jeremiah 9:11 (vv13, 18) “I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
- Zephaniah 1:15 (vv10, 18) That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and…
- Deuteronomy 28:30 (v13) You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard,…
- 1 Samuel 5:5 (v9) Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
- 1 Kings 11:33 (v5) because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god…
- 1 Kings 18:21 (v5) Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal,…
- 2 Kings 17:41 (v5) So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children.…
- 2 Kings 23:12 (v5) The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which…
- 2 Chronicles 34:1-33 (v1) Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s…
- Psalms 14:2-3 (v6) Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. They have all gone…
- Psalms 36:3 (v6) The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
- Isaiah 13:6 (v7) Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Ezekiel 7:6-7 (v14) An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes. Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has…
- Hosea 4:3 (v3) Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field…
- Hosea 7:7 (v6) They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.
- Joel 1:15 (v14) Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Joel 2:2 (v15) A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people;…
- Zephaniah 1:11 (v18) Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.
- Matthew 16:26 (v18) For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
- Acts 2:20 (v14) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
- James 5:9 (v14) Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.
- 2 Peter 2:3 (v14) In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not…
- Joel 2:31 (vv7, 14) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Amos 5:18-20 (vv7, 15) “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light. As if a man fled from a…
- Deuteronomy 10:20 (v5) You shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.
- Joshua 23:7 (v5) that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by…
- 1 Samuel 16:5 (v7) He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and…
- 1 Kings 11:5 (v5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 2 Kings 22:14 (v10) So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son…
- 2 Kings 25:19-21 (v8) and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in…
- Psalms 83:10 (v17) who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.
- Psalms 94:7 (v12) They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
- Proverbs 18:11 (v18) The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.
- Isaiah 2:12 (v7) For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
- Isaiah 3:18-24 (v8) In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, the earrings, the bracelets, the…
- Isaiah 39:7 (v8) ‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’ ”
- Isaiah 43:22 (v6) Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel.
- Isaiah 44:5 (v5) One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s;’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to Yahweh,’ and honor…
- Isaiah 45:23 (v5) I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every…
- Isaiah 48:1 (v5) “Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name,…
- Jeremiah 4:2 (v5) and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will…
- Jeremiah 5:7 (v5) “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed…
- Jeremiah 16:16-17 (v12) “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will…
- Jeremiah 22:11-19 (v8) For Yahweh says touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this…
- Jeremiah 22:24-30 (v8) “As I live,” says Yahweh, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from…
- Jeremiah 36:29 (v2) Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Yahweh says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein,…
- Jeremiah 39:6-7 (v8) Then the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons in Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah.…
- Ezekiel 9:9 (v12) Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full…
- Ezekiel 33:27-29 (v2) “You shall tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will fall by the sword. I will give he…
- Hosea 4:15 (v5) “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As…
- Hosea 10:5 (v4) The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who…
- Amos 3:10 (v9) “Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”
- Amos 5:26 (v5) You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
- Amos 8:3 (v10) The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw…
- Malachi 3:14-15 (v12) You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (289 total citations).
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 Zephaniah is placed the last of the Minor Prophets…
Zephaniah is placed the last of the Minor Prophets who performed their office before the Babylonian Captivity; and the inscription shows that he exercised his office of teaching at the same time with Jeremiah, about thirty years before the city was destroyed, the Temple pulled down, and the people led into exile. Jeremiah, it is true, followed his vocation even after the death of Josiah, while Zephaniah prophesied only during his reign.
The substance of his Book is this: He first denounces utter destruction on a people who were so perverse, that there was no hope of their repentance;—he then moderates his threatening, by denouncing God’s judgments on their enemies, the Assyrians, as well as others, who had treated with cruelty the Church of God; for it was no small consolation, when the Jews heard that they were so regarded by God, that he would undertake their cause and avenge their wrongs. He afterwards repeats again his reproofs, and shortly mentions the sins which then prevailed among the elect people of God; and, at the same time, he turns his discourse to the faithful, and exhorts them to patience, setting before them the hope of favor, provided they ever looked to the Lord; and provided they relied on the gratuitous covenant which he made with Abraham, and doubted not but that he would be a Father to them, and also looked, with a tranquil mind, for that redemption which had been promised to them. This is the sum of the whole Book.
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Zephaniah first mentions the time in which he prophesied; it was under the king Josiah. The reason why he puts down the name of his father Amon does not appear to me. The Prophet would not, as a mark of honor, have made public a descent that was disgraceful and infamous. Amon was the son of Manasseh, an impious and wicked king; and he was nothing better than his father. We hence see that his name is recorded, not for the sake of honor, but rather of reproach; and it may have been that the Prophet meant to intimate, what was then well known to all, that the people had become so obdurate in their superstitions, that it was no easy matter to restore them to a sound mind. But we cannot bring forward anything but conjecture; I therefore leave the matter without pretending to decide it.
With regard to the pedigree of the Prophet, I have mentioned elsewhere what the Jews affirm—that when the Prophets put down the names of their fathers, they themselves had descended from Prophets. But Zephaniah mentions not only his father and grandfather, but also his great-grandfather and his great-great-grandfather; and it is hardly credible that they were all Prophets, and there is not a word respecting them in Scripture. I do not think, as I have said elsewhere, that such a rule is well-founded; but the Jews in this case, according to their manner, deal in trifles; for in things unknown they hesitate not to assert what comes to their minds, though it may not have the least appearance of truth. It is possible that the father, grandfather, the great-grandfather, and the great-great-grandfather of the Prophet, were persons who excelled in piety; but this also is uncertain. What is especially worthy of being noticed is— that he begins by saying that he brought nothing of his own, but faithfully, and, as it were, by the hand, delivered what he had received from God.
With regard, then, to his pedigree, it is a matter of no great moment; but it is of great importance to know that God was the author of his doctrine, and that Zephaniah was his faithful minister, who introduced not his own devices, but was only the announcer of celestial truth. Let us now proceed to the contents -
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 Not that God was angry with these dumb creatures,…
Not that God was angry with these dumb creatures, but because man was so wicked for whose cause they were created, God maketh them to take part of the punishments with him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Zep 1:1 The word of the LORD which came…
Zep 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Which is (by interpretation) God’s secretary, or, hidden one, Psa 27:5; Psa 83:3. Or, as Jerome and some others will have it, God’s watchman, Eze 33:7. A fit name for a prophet.
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The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c.] These were, if not prophets (as the Jewish doctors make them), yet men famous in the Church ( Hebraei Prophetarum patres, quotquot nominatim recensentur, ipsos quoque prophetas fuisse dicunt); as were Alexander and Rufus, though they be but mentioned and no more, Mar 15:21.
In the days of Josiah] Who reigned thirty-one years, but, being in his minority, began not to reform religion, much corrupted in the days of his idolatrous father, Amon, till the eighteenth year of his reign, 2Ki 22:1; 2Ki 23:23, whether before or after the reformation, "the word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah," interpreters agree not. Jeremiah (his contemporary) began not to prophesy till the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign, Jer 1:1-2, at what time (viz. in his twelfth year) he had begun to reform with a great deal of zeal, 2Ch 34:3, but also he met with a great deal of opposition from the princes and people who had been woefully hardened and abituated in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon, and therefore with much difficulty drawn off. Zephaniah and Jeremiah were singular helps, no doubt, to that peerless king in his zealous undertakings for God. But why he should send to Huldah, the prophetess, rather than to either of them, 2Ki 22:13, what other reason can be given but that she dwelt in the college at Jerusalem, and so was next at hand? And why he went up against Pharaoh Necho, and sent not first to any prophet to ask their advice, what can we say but this, that sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts? and that the best of God’s saints may be sometimes miscarried by their passion, to their cost?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–18 The word; the declaration of the purpose of God,…
The word; the declaration of the purpose of God, either spoken audibly, or clearly manifested by signs.
Of the Lord, God of Israel; here is the Divine authority of this prophecy with which the prophet's word is seconded.
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Which came: the precise manner how it came we need not inquire into;
Zephaniah did not hammer out of his own brain any such news, he received from God what he communicated to them. Zephaniah; by derivation of the name. it is one hidden of the Lord, whom God doth hide, or God's secretary; or else one that is God's Watchman, whom God hath set over the house of Judah, as Ezekiel is said to be, Eze 3:17.
The son of Cushi, &c. his pedigree here gives us no certainty what his progenitors were, whether prophets, or only eminent known men; or whether he were, as some think him, the great-grandson of Hezekiah, the name being the same.
In the days of Josiah; before the captivity; he was then contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. prophesied before the captivity, and foretells much like what Jeremiah or Ezekiel did.
Amon; whose reign was very full of impiety and idolatry, and hastened the captivity upon Judah. This Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh had made, 2Ch 33:22.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 14 Here is, I. The title-page of this book (Zep…
Here is, I. The title-page of this book (Zep 1:1), in which we observe, 1. What authority it has, and who gave it that authority; it is from heaven, and not of men: It is the word of the Lord. 2. Who was the instrument of conveying it to the church. His name was Zephaniah, which signifies the servant of the Lord, for God revealed his secrets to his servants the prophets. The pedigree of other prophets, whose extraction we have an account of, goes no further back than their father, except Zecharias, whose grandfather also is named. But this of Zephaniah goes back four generations, and the highest mentioned is Hizkiah; it is the very same name in the original with that of Hezekiah king of Judah (Kg2 18:1), and refers probably to him; if so, our prophet, being lineally descended from that pious prince, and being of the royal family, could with the better grace reprove the folly of the king's children as he does, Zep 1:8. 3. When this prophet prophesied - in the days of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned well, and in the twelfth year of his reign began vigorously, and carried on a work of reformation, in which he destroyed idols and idolatry. Now it does not appear whether Zephaniah prophesied in the beginning of his reign; if so, we may suppose his prophesying had a great and good influence on that reformation. When he, as God's messenger, reproved the idolatries of Jerusalem, Josiah, as God's vice-regent, removed them; and reformation is likely to go on and prosper when both magistrates and ministers do their part towards it. If it were towards the latter end of his reign that he prophesied, we sadly see how a corrupt people relapse into their former distempers. The idolatries Josiah had abolished, it should seem, returned in his own time, when the heat of the reformation began a little to abate and wear off. What good can the best reformers do with a people that hate to be reformed, as if they longed to be ruined?
II. The summary, or contents, of this book. The general proposition contained in it is, That utter destruction is coming apace upon Judah and Jerusalem for sin. Without preamble, or apology, he begins abruptly (Zep 1:2): By taking away I will make an end of all things from off the face of the land, Saith the Lord. Ruin is coming, utter ruin, destruction from the Almighty. He has said it who can, and will, make good what he has said: "I will utterly consume all things. I will gather all things" (so some); "I will recall all the blessings I have bestowed, because they have abused them and so forfeited them." The consumption determined shall take away, 1. The inferior creatures: I will consume the beasts, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea (Zep 1:3), as, in the deluge, every living substance was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, Gen 7:23. The creatures were made for man's use, and therefore when he has perverted the use of them, and made them subject to vanity, God, to show the greatness of his displeasure against the sin of man, involves them in his punishment. The expressions are figurative, denoting universal desolation. Those that fly ever so high, as the fowls of heaven, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies' hand - those that hide ever so close, as the fishes of the sea, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies' eye - shall yet become a prey to them, and be utterly consumed. 2. The children of men: "I will consume man; I will cut off man from the land. The land shall be dispeopled and left uninhabited; I will destroy, not only Israel, but man. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths. I will cut off, not only the wicked men, but all men; even the few among them that are good shall be involved in this common calamity. Though they shall not be cut off from the Lord, yet they shall be cut off from the land." It is with Judah and Jerusalem that God has this quarrel, both city and country, and upon them he will stretch out his hand, the hand of his power, the hand of his wrath; and who knows the power of his anger? Zep 1:4. Those that will not humble themselves under God's mighty hand shall be humbled and brought down by it. Note, Even Judah, where God is known, and Jerusalem, where his dwelling-place is, if they revolt from him and rebel against him, shall have his hand stretched out against them. 3. All wicked people, and all those things that are the matter of their wickedness (Zep 1:3): "I will consume the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, the idols with the idolaters, the offences with the offenders." Josiah had taken away the stumbling-blocks, and, as far as he could, had purged the land of the monuments of idolatry, hoping that there would be no more idolatry; but the wicked will do wickedly, the dog will return to his vomit, and therefore, since the sin will not otherwise be cured, the sinners must themselves be consumed, even the wicked with the stumbling-blocks of their iniquity, Eze 14:3. Since it was not done by the sword of justice, it shall be done by the sword of war. See who the sinners are that shall be consumed. (1.) The professed idolaters, who avowed idolatry, and were wedded to it. The remnant of Baal shall be cut off, the images of Baal, and the worshippers of those images. Josiah cut off a great deal of Baal; but that which was so close as to escape the eye, or so bold as to escape the hand, of his justice, God will cut off, even all the remains of it. The Chaldeans would spare none of the images of Baal, or the worshippers of those images. The Chemarim shall be cut off; we read of them in the history of Josiah's reformation. Kg2 23:5, He put down the idolatrous priests: the word is the Chemarim. The word signifies black men, some think because they wore black clothes, affecting to appear grave, others because their faces were black with attending the altars, or the fires in which they burnt their children to Moloch. They seem to have been immediate attendants upon the service of Baal. They shall be cut off with the priests, the regulars with the seculars. The very name of them shall be cut off; the order shall be quite abolished, so as to be forgotten, or remembered with detestation. And, among other idolaters, the worshippers of the host of heaven upon the house-tops shall be cut off (Zep 1:5), who justified themselves in their idolatry with those that did not worship images, the work of their own hands, but offered their sacrifices and burnt their incense to the sun, moon, and stars, immediately upon the tops of their houses. But God will let them know that he is a jealous God, and will not endure any rival; and, though some have thought that the most specious and plausible idolatry, yet it will appear as great an offence to God to give divine honours to a star as to give them to a stone or a stock. Even the worshippers of the host of heaven shall be consumed as well as the worshippers of the beasts of the earth or the fiends of hell. The sin of the adulteress is not the less sinful for the gaiety of the adulterer. (2.) Those also shall be consumed that think to compound the matter between God and idols, and keep an even hand between them, that halt between God and Baal, and worship between Jehovah and Moloch, and swear by both; or, as it might better be read, swear to the Lord and to Malcham. They bind themselves by oath and covenant to the service both of God and idols. They have a good opinion of the worship of the God of Israel; it is the religion of their country, and has been long so, and therefore they will by no means quit it; but they think it will be very much improved and beautified if they join with it the worship of Moloch, for that also is much used in other countries, and travellers admire it; there is a great deal of good fancy and strong flame in it. They cannot keep always to the worship of a God whom they have no visible representation of, and therefore they must have an image; and what better than the image of Moloch - a king? They think they shall effectually atone for their sin if they swear to Moloch, and, pursuant to that oath, burn their children in sacrifice to that idol; and yet, if they do amiss in that, they hope to atone for it in worshipping the God of Israel too. Note, Those that think to divide their affections and adorations between God and idols will not only come short of acceptance with God, but will have their doom with the worst of idolaters; for what communion can there be between light and darkness, Christ and Belial, God and mammon? She whose own the child is not pleads for the dividing of it, for, if Satan have half, he will have all; but the true mother says, Divide it not, for, if God have but half, he will have none. Such waters will not be long sweet, if they come from a fountain that sends forth bitter water too; what have those to do to swear by the Lord that swear by Malcham? (3.) Those also shall be consumed that have apostatized from God, together with those that never gave up their names to him, Zep 1:6. I will cut off, [1.] Those that are turned back from the Lord, that were well taught, and began well, that had given up their names to him, and set out at first in the worship of him, but have flown off, and turned aside, and fallen in with idolaters, and deserted those good ways of God which they were brought up in, and despised them. Those God will be sure to reckon with who are renegadoes from his service, who began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh; they shall be treated as deserters, to whom no mercy is shown. [2.] Those that have not sought the Lord, nor ever enquired for him, never made any profession of religion, and think to excuse themselves with that, shall find that this will not excuse them; nay, this is the thing laid to their charge; they are atheistical careless people, that live without God in the world; and those that do so are certainly unworthy to live upon God in the world.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–18 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah…
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi This is the title of the book, which expresses the subject matter of it, the word of the Lord; the word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; and shows the divine authority of it; that it was not of himself, nor from any man, but was of God; as well as describes the penman of it by his descent: who or what this his father was; whether a prophet, according to the rule the Jews give, that, when the name of a prophet and his father's name are mentioned, he is a prophet, the son of a prophet; or, whether a prince, a person of some great family, and even of the blood royal, as some have thought, is not certain; or who those after mentioned: the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah; which last name, consisting of the same letters with Hezekiah, king of Judah, some have thought, as Aben Ezra, that he is intended; and that Zephaniah was a great-grandson of his; and which some think is confirmed by his style and diction, and by the freedom he used with the king's family, ( Zephaniah 1:8 ) but it is objected, that, if so it was, Hizkiah, or Hezekiah, would have been called king of Judah; that it does not appear that Hezekiah had any other son besides Manasseh; and that there was not a sufficient distance of time from Hezekiah for four descents; and that, in fact, there were but three generations from him to Josiah, in whose days Zephaniah prophesied, as follows; though it is very probable that these progenitors of the prophet were men of note and character, and therefore mentioned, as well as to distinguish him from others of the same name, who lived in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah: not Amos, as the Arabic version: Amon and Manasseh, who reigned between Hezekiah and Josiah, were both wicked princes, and introduced idolatrous worship among the Jews; which Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign began to purge the people from, and endeavoured a reformation; but whether it was before or after that Zephaniah delivered out this prophecy is not certain; it may seem to be before, by the corruption of the times described in it; and so it may be thought to have some influence upon the after reformation; though it is thought by many it was after; since, had he been in this office before the finding of the book of the law, he, and not Huldah the prophetess, would have been consulted, ( 2 Kings 22:14 ) nor could the people so well have been taxed with a perversion of the law, had it not been as yet found, ( Zephaniah 3:4 ) and, besides, the reformation seems to be hinted at in this prophecy, since mention is made of the remnant of Baal, which supposes a removal of many of his images; and also notice is taken of some that apostatized after the renewal of the covenant, ( Zephaniah 1:4 Zephaniah 1:6 ) moreover, the time of the Jews' destruction and captivity is represented as very near, ( Zephaniah 1:7 Zephaniah 1:14 ) which began a little after the death of Josiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; to which Dr. Lightfoot F6 adds, that the prophet prophesies against the king's children, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, for their new fashions, and newfangled apparel, ( Zephaniah 1:8 ) and therefore it must be in the latter part of his reign; and, if so, it shows how a people may relapse into sin after the greatest endeavours for their good, and the best of examples set them. Mr. Whiston F7 and Mr. Bedford F8 place him in the latter part of his reign, about 611 or 612 B.C.: there were three that prophesied about this time, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Huldah the prophetess; of whom the Jewish Rabbins say, as Kimchi quotes them, Jeremiah prophesied in the streets, Zephaniah in the synagogues, and Huldah among the women. FOOTNOTES: F6 Works, vol. 1. p. 117. F7 Chronological Tables, cent. 9. F8 Scripture Chronology, p. 674.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18 The title of the book, ver. 1. The destruction…
The title of the book, ver. 1. The destruction of Judah foretold, ver. 2-4. A charge against them for their sins, ver. 5-9. A description of the day of the Lord, ver. 10-18.
Zephaniah - He is thought to have been the great-grandson of king Hezekiah. In the days of Josiah - So he was cotemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and foretells what Jeremiah and Ezekiel did.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition…
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH
Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that it was written in the twelfth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah
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-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3374.
-Year of the Julian Period, 4084.
-Year since the Flood, 1718.
-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1291.
-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 382.
-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 346.
-Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 147.
-Third year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 124.
-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 118.
-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 92.
-Year before the birth of Christ, 626.
-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 630.
-Cycle of the Sun, 24.
-Cycle of the Moon, 18.
-Eighteenth year of Phraortes, king of Media. This monarch is supposed by some to have been the same with the Arphaxad of the Apocrypha.
-Eleventh year of Philip I., king of Macedon.
-Twenty-second year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.
-Fifteenth year of Eurycrates II., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.
-Twenty-ninth year of Cypselus, who had seized upon the government of Corinth.
-Forty-second year of Psammitichus, king of Egypt, according to Helvicus.
-Tenth year of Kiniladachus, king of Babylon, according to the same chronologer. This monarch was the immediate predecessor of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar.
-Second year of Sadyattes, king of Lydia.
-Eleventh year of Ancus Martius, the fifth king of the Romans.
-Twelfth year of Josiah, king of Judah.
CHAPTER I
This chapter begins with denouncing God's judgments against
Judah and Jerusalem, 1-3.
Idolaters, and sinners of several other denominations, are then
particularly threatened; and their approaching visitation
enlarged on, by the enumeration of several circumstances which
tend greatly to heighten its terrors, 4-18.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Though this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet little concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain relative to the persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have one chronological note which is of more value for the correct understanding of his prophecy than the other could have been, how circumstantially soever it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of the disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident that he must have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was in the eighteenth year of his reign. And as he predicts the destruction of Nineveh, Zep 2:13, which, as Calmet remarks, could not have taken place before the sixteenth of Josiah, allowing with Berosus twenty-one years for the reign of Nabopolassar over the Chaldeans; we must, therefore, place this prophecy about the beginning of the reign of Josiah, or from B.C. 640 to B.C. 609. But see the chronological notes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17 Zep 1:1. The word that came to Zephaniah —…
Zep 1:1. The word that came to Zephaniah — The divine revelation that was made to him. The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c. — If these were not prophets, as the Jewish doctors make them, yet it is probable they were persons of some note in Judah. The son of Hizkiah — Although both the letters and points of this name in the Hebrew are the same with those of King Hezekiah, and some therefore have thought that the prophet was his great-grandson; yet that could not be the case, because there was not a sufficient distance of time between King Hezekiah and Josiah, in whose time he flourished, for four descents: nor do we read of Hezekiah’s having any son but Manasseh. In the days of Josiah — The Jews were wont to allege, that their kings obliged them to practise idolatry, and rendered them in other respects corrupt in their manners; but God, by raising up the pious Josiah to be their king, deprived them of that excuse. For so far was he from encouraging them in any branch of impiety or vice, that he used his utmost efforts to effect a thorough reformation among them, although, alas! to little purpose, for they continued to be exceeding corrupt, both in their principles and practices; or, if any change took place among them for the better, it seems to have been but very partial, and of very short duration.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–18 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah…
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah - It seems likely that more forefathers of the prophet are named than is the wont of Holy Scripture, because the last so named was some one remarkable. Nor is it impossible that Zephaniah should have been the great grandson of the King Hezekiah, for although Holy Scripture commonly names the one son only who is in the sacred line, and although there is one generation more than to Josiah, yet if each had a son early, Zephaniah might have been contemporary with Josiah. The names seem also mentioned for the sake of their meaning; at least it is remarkable how the name of God appears in most. Zephaniah, “whom the Lord hid;” Gedaliah, “whom the Lord made great;” Amariah, “whom the Lord promised;” Hezekiah, “whom the Lord strengthened.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Lord. Thus the prophets insinuate that they are not…
Lord. Thus the prophets insinuate that they are not the authors but the ministers of God’s word. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Zep_1:1 to Zep_2:3
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
Zep_1:1 to Zep_2:3
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[The Universality of the Judgment (Zep_1:2-3): it will destroy all the Idolaters in Judah and Jerusalem (Zep_1:4-7): it will fall upon Sinners of every Rank (Zep_1:8-13): it will burst irresistibly upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth (Zep_1:14-18): a Call to Conversion (Zep_2:1-3).—C. E.]
1 The word of Jehovah, which was communicated to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hiskiah [Hezekiah]; in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah:
2 I will utterly destroy1 everything from the face of the earth, saith Jehovah.
3 I will destroy man and beast:
I will destroy the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea,
And the causes of offence2 with the sinners;
And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,
Saith Jehovah.
4 And I will stretch forth my hand over Judah,
And over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
And I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal,
The idol-priests,3 together with the priests;
5 And those who worship the host of heaven upon their roofs,
And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah,
And who swear by their king;4
6 And those who draw back from Jehovah,
Who do not seek Jehovah,
And do not inquire for Him.
7 Be silent before the Lord Jehovah,
For the day of Jehovah is near;
For Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice,
He has consecrated those whom He has invited.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah’s sacrifice,
That I will visit [with punishment] the princes and the king’s sons,
And all that wear foreign apparel.
9 And I will visit, in that day, every one that leaps over the threshold,
Those who fill the house of their Lord with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah,
[That there shall be] the voice of crying from the fish-gate,
And howling from the lower city,5
And great destruction from the hills.
11 Howl ye inhabitants of the Mortar,6
For all the people of Canaan are destroyed,
All that are laden with silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time,
That I will search Jerusalem with candles,
And I will visit the men who lie upon their lees,
Who say in their hearts,
Jehovah will not do good, neither will He do evil.
13 And their wealth shall become a spoil,
And their houses a desolation;
And they shall build houses and not inhabit them,
And plant vineyards and not drink their wine.
14 The great day of Jehovah is near;
It is near and hasteth greatly;
Hark! the day of Jehovah,
Bitterly cries the mighty man there.
15 A day of [overflowing] wrath is that day,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of ruin and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds, and cloudy darkness;
16 A day of the trumpet and of the war-cry
Against the fortified cities,
And against the lofty battlements.
17 And I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall walk as the blind;
Because they have sinned against Jehovah,
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them
In the day of Jehovah’s fury;
And the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy [anger];
For He will make an end, yea a sudden one, to all the inhabitants of the earth.
II
1 Bend7 yourselves, bend ye people, that do not grow pale;
2 Before the decree bring forth,
(The day passes away like chaff,)
Before the burning wrath of Jehovah come upon you,
Before the day of Jehovah’s anger come upon you.
3 Seek Jehovah, all ye humble of the land,
Who have kept [wrought] his right [law];
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
Perhaps ye will be hidden in the day of Jehovah’s wrath.
EXEGETICAL
On the heading compare the Introduction, I. The prophecy itself describes, like Nah_1:1 ff., in an abstract manner, the judgment, in its internal, necessary character. It is—
(a) God’s judgment, hence absolute (Zep_1:2-3), but—
(b) In its relation to Israel, it has for its end the extermination of idolatry (Zep_1:4-6), so that it appears as a holy act, not merely as a slaughter, but as a sacrifice. (Zep_1:7.)
To these introductory thoughts are joined—
(c) The description of the separate necessary acts of punishment (Zep_1:8-13); three strophes of two verses each, of which each is introduced by a וְהָיָה and—
(d) A general characteristic of the terribleness of the day of judgment (Zep_1:14-18), finally—
(e) An exhortation to repentance before the judgment (Zep_2:1-3).
Zep_1:2-3 : The Universality of the Judgment. From the very first the prophet characterizes his prophecy as a threatening one: I will sweep off, sweep off everything from the face of the earth. Instead of אֶאֶֽסֹף, which we would expect, the prophet joins to the inf. abs. of the root כוף the verb fin. of the cognate root כוף. Comp. on Hab_3:9, and Ewald, sec. 312 b, 3. The retrospective contrast to Mic_2:11 cannot be mistaken; and just as little to be mistaken is the allusion to the Divine sentence, Gen_6:7.
Zep_1:3 : I will sweep off … in the sea. The creatures are affected by the universality of the judgment; connected by a community of interests with mankind, on whose account the judgment takes place, they suffer with them. And the ruins,—the habitations of men, world, land, state, city (comp. Isa_3:6), which go to wreck before the judgment of God,—together with the sinners, comp. Nah_1:14. The meaning of offense [Aergerniss] (Luther, Strauss, Keil), for the word מכשׁלה, is dot exactly ungrammatical, but it cannot be substantiated from the usage of the language. (It seems certainly to be presupposed, Mat_13:41. Schmieder. [See note 2, Zep_1:3.—C. E.] I will certainly destroy men from the face of the earth, saith Jehovah.
Zep_1:4-7 : The edge of the judgment is directed against Judah and Jerusalem and the idolatry there. And I will stretch out my hand (the noted favorite expression of Isa_9:11 ff., comp. Isa_5:25) over Judah … and I will destroy from this place the remnant of Baal, which the king had not yet destroyed. Comp. the Introd. 2. Baal stands for the worship of Baal (comp. Hosea 2), as the explanatory appositional clause immediately following proves: the names of the idol–priests [Pfaffen], together with the priests [Priestern]., כּמרים was the official designation of the priests of Baal (2Ki_23:5); these were entirely to disappear; this is what is meant by the destruction of the name (comp. Nah_1:14). But, as we may certainly infer from the circumstance that the worship of Baal had been introduced into the Temple also (2Ki_23:4 comp. 2Ki_16:11) the Cohanim too, priests of Jehovah, both in Israel and in Judah, had polluted themselves by their participation in idolatry.
[These, too, are to disappear, though their name, consecrated by the Torah [Law], cannot be removed. [Keil is of the opinion that the Kemârum are not prophets of Baal, but, as in 2Ki_23:5, and Hos_10:5, the priests appointed by the kings of Judah for the worship of the high places and the idolatrous worship of Jehovah. Kõhânĩm, as distinguished from these, he considers idolatrous priests in the stricter sense of the word.—C. E.]
And as it befalls the priests, so is it to befall the worshippers of false gods [Götzen], Zep_1:5 : And those who worship the host of heaven upon their roofs. [Comp. Jahn’s Bib. Arch, sees. 406 and 407, pages 518, 519, New York, Ivison & Co., 1866; also Thomson’s The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 52, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1859.—C. E.] This Babylonian worship (comp. Com. on Nahum, p. 36) was known already in the time of Moses (Deu_4:19).
The practice of it, as stated above, had its natural place on the open roof’s; it had also been abolished by force in the period of the decline of the kingdom (2Ki_23:12; Jer_19:13); and had probably, before the spread of the Syro phœnician service of Baal in Judah, been blended with this so as to form a syncretistic idolatry; comp. the name of Baal, Belsamen (בַּטַל שָׁמַם = בְּעֵל שָׁמֵין), in Hieron., Aug. in Jud., 3:449; comp. Plautus, Pœnulus, v. ii. 67. Here also, as at the end of Zep_1:4, those who blend the service of Jehovah with idolatry (comp. 1Ki_18:21), are mentioned along with the direct worshippers of idols: And the worshippers, who swear to Jehovah, and, at the same time, swear by their king. Swearing is, according to the Old Testament view, a sign of the service of God and part of the confession [of Him]. Isa_19:18; Amo_8:14. The Vulgate pronounces the consonants מלכם Milcom, which is the known name of the idol-god of the Ammonites. 1Ki_11:5. The Masorites read Malcâm, by their king; and in keeping with this the LXX. translate it κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως αὐτῶν; however, they hardly thought of an earthly king; they translate also (1Ki_11:7) the idol-god Molech by βασιλεύς (comp. Jer_32:35 : τῷ Μολὸχ βασιλεῖ). This is the one here intended; at the same time we must assume that he had been admitted into the syncretism of the Ahaz Manasseh idol-worship in Jerusalem (2Ki_16:3). (According to the signification of the name he may as well have corresponded, in the southern cultus of Canaan, to the Baal of the northern cultus, vide Cölln.) Here the name does not appear in the Canaanitish form Molech (LXX. Moloch), peculiar to the idol, but in the pure Hebraic form Melech. The prophet purposely changes the names of the idols, in order to characterize the worthless [das zusammengebettelte, scraped together by begging] and intrinsically baseless character of these idolatries as opposed to the worship of the One Jehovah. To the actual apostates he adds (Zep_1:6), the great number of the careless and despisers: and those … who do not ask for Him, who by this negative conduct prove the apostasy of their hearts. Comp. 1Ch_15:13. [The whole of this entire enumeration (Zep_1:4-6) shows a gradual progress from gross external to refined internal idolatry. “The Lord will destroy (1) the remnant of the idols of Baal; (2) the company of their servants; (3) the worshippers of the idols, who content themselves with altars without images, but worship publicly upon the house-tops; (4) the secret worshippers; (5) those who, without practicing idolatry, have apostatized from God in their hearts; (6) The indifferentists.”—Schmieder.]
The judgment comes upon all these, Zep_1:7 : Be silent before the Lord Jehovah. The graphic particle הס is borrowed from Amo_6:10 (comp. Zeph 2:17). The silence lies here, as in Hab_2:20, between the preparative announcement and the description of the judgment. While the prophet is deeply occupied in thinking of its coming, he assumes as it were the character of a herald of God, who first proclaims what is now about to come to pass, and then when it arrives he enjoins silence. That the “silence” serves as a favete linguis to the introduction to the holy sacrificial act (Hitzig), is a view borrowed not from the Old Testament, but from the profane classics. Keep silence, “for the day of Jehovah is near.” [This is the reason for the command to “keep silence.”—C. E.]. Zephaniah makes his announcement culminate in the noted formula of threatening, which pervades prophecy from Oba_1:15 forward (comp. Joe_1:15; Joel 4:14), and at the same time gives along with it the theme for the subsequent representation. He immediately defines more precisely the character of this day: for Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice. זֶבַח is here, as in Isa_34:6; Jer_46:10 [and Eze_39:17—C. E.], not an abstract of the verb זָבח, to slaughter (cædes, Ges., Thes., Maur.), but, as it is everywhere, a sacrifice. And, indeed, where it stands absolutely, it is synonymous with the fuller term. tech. זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים, peace-offering; the kind of offering, in which only certain parts of the victim were burned and a feast prepared of the rest. [Hence in contrast not only to מִנְחָה, the bloodless, and to חַטָּאה, the sin-offering, but also to עֹלָה, the burnt-offering, Lev_17:8.] This connection of ideas suggests the clause: and has consecrated those whom he has invited. Krûim, those who are invited to the feast, as in 1Sa_9:13. The heathen nations, whom Israel are about to destroy, are meant; hence the wider thought is taken from Isa_13:3, that they are consecrated by God for the destruction of the impious one (ἀθωρισμένοι ἐς τοῦτο, Theodoret): they come not only as allies, but also as executors of the holy act in consideration. On the day of God there will also be brought by holy hands a holy offering, and it will be consumed by those whom God has invited: but the victim is not an animal, but his people; those who slay it are not priests, and those who feast on it are not confederates of the people, but strangers.
Zep_1:8-13. The first detailed statement in the amplification of Zep_1:7. The Three Acts of Punishment. The first, Zep_1:8-9, falls upon the princes, who indulge in the customs of the heathen. And it shall come to pass .... upon the mighty ones, the dignitaries of state, the heads of tribes and families, from whose opposition, as was formerly the case with the reforms of Hezekiah (Micah 3), so also now those of Josiah were likely to meet with their strongest resistance, and who, in influence, might indeed surpass the royal princes, as is the case in the present day in the kingdoms of the East. Hence these latter are mentioned in the second place. “The sons of Josiah (1Ch_3:14), Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, being both still of a tender age, cannot be meant, but only brothers or uncles.” Hitzig. Comp. Introd. 1. The reason why the judgment is to fall upon these especially—the king is exempted (comp. 2Ki_22:18 ff.)—immediately follows: upon all, who clothe themselves with foreign apparel. “Mihi non dubium est, quin illo œvo alii Ægyptios in vestitu imitarentur, alii Babylonios, prout huic aut illi genti studebant.” Drusius. The strange apparel shows the estranged heart; the infringement of the popular manners and the contempt of the national costume evince the decay of the national spirit. Moreover the law by no means treats of clothing as an adiaphoron (Deu_22:11; Lev_19:19). And so then among these princes it appears that the desire after strange clothing goes hand in hand with the desire of the heart to apostatize from the worship of the true God, Zep_1:9 : And I will visit in that day every one that leaps over the threshold. It belonged to the ceremonial, in the worship of the Philistine god Dagon, to leap over the temple threshold, which was considered sacred and not to be touched (1Sa_5:5). The Chaldæan briefly paraphrases it: all who follow the usages of the Philistines. Those who fill the house of their lords with violence and deceit. As the prophet was speaking of leaping over the threshold, the connection requires that we look for the house behind this threshold, and consequently that we understand the lords to mean idols, whom they serve and to whom they carry their unjustly acquired treasures. אדון, according to the signification of the word, is equivalent to בּעל(comp. the plural בּעלים, 1Sa_7:4). So also Cölln; Hitzig would understand the passage so as to mean that those who are reprehended regard the palace of the king as an idol-temple, and bring into it deceit and violence. But that would be a pompous way of expressing it; and Josiah would hardly have suffered it. In a similar way Bucer, Ewald, and Keil [understand the passage]. The conjecture that ordinary servants and masters (Strauss) are meant, does not agree with the context.
[Keil: In Zep_1:9 a, many commentators find a condemnation of an idolatrous use of foreign customs; regarding the leaping over the threshold, as an imitation of the priests of Dagon, who adopted the custom, according to 1Sa_5:5, of leaping over the threshold when they entered the temple of that idol. But an imitation of that custom could only take place in temples of Dagon, and it appears perfectly inconceivable that it should have been transferred to the threshold of the king’s palace, unless the king was regarded as an incarnation of Dagon,—a thought which could never enter the minds of Israelitish idolaters, since even the Philistian kings did not hold themselves to be incarnations of their idols. If we turn to the second hemistich, the thing condemned is the filling of their masters houses with violence; and this certainly does not stand in any conceivable relation to that custom of the priests of Dagon; and yet the words “who fill,” etc., are proved to be explanatory of the first half of the verse, by the fact that the second clause is appended without the copula Vav, and without the repetition of the preposition עַל. Now, if a fresh sin were referred to here, the copula Vav, at all events, could not have been omitted. We must therefore understand by the leaping over the threshold, a violent and sudden rushing into houses to steal the property of strangers (Calvin, Ros., Ewald, Strauss, and others), so that the allusion is to “dishonorable servants of the king, who thought that they could best serve their master by extorting treasures from their dependants by violence and fraud” (Ewald). אֲדֹנֵיהֶם, of their lord, i.e., of the king, not “of their lords:” the plural is in the pluralis majestatis, as in 1Sa_26:16; 2Sa_2:5, etc.—C. E.]
The second act of punishment, Zep_1:10-11, falls (11 c) upon the rich. And it shall come to pass … that a woeful cry shall be heard from the fish-gate, which also occurs in 2Ch_33:14; Neh_3:3; Neh_12:39, and which, according to Hieron., led to Joppa, so that the nearest way to the sea passed through it; according to Neh_3:3, however (comp. Robinson, Pal., ii. 118), it did not lead westward, but northward from the city; and howling from the lower city. The New city, literally, the second city, is the name of a part of the city (2Ki_22:14; comp. Neh_11:9; Jos., Ant., xv. 11. 5), probably of the suburb situated to the north (lower city, Robinson, Strauss), in which the Fish Gate was situated, and whence from the natural situation,—for on the other side Jerusalem is protected by the ground,—the attack of the enemies was to be expected. [See note 5 on Zep_1:10.—C.E.] And great destruction from the hills. קוֹל taking the place of the verb, as in Nah_3:2, is construed, according to the sense, with all three substantives;
Zep_1:11. Howl, ye inhabitants of the Mortar—evidently, from the context, also a section of Jerusalem, but whose situation cannot be more exactly defined. מבהשׁ. a mortar, then a cavity, as, e.g., that in which the teeth are set (Jdg_15:19), will, understood as a locality, designate that part of the city situated in the hollow (Theodotion: ἐν τῷ βάθει); and it lies, we may suppose, nearest to the valley between Moriah and Zion, the locality subsequently known as the Cheesemongers’ valley [Tyropœon]. For all the merchant people are silent, entirely destroyed (Psa_49:13; comp. also Zep_1:7 above), cut off are all those that are laden with silver. The context, which is concerned throughout with localities and wholly with the judgment of the city, shows that עַם בְּנִצַז does not designate the inhabitants of all Canaan. And it is intended to consider “Jerusalem indicated by Canaan as far as it is of a Canaanitish, i.e., of an idolatrous character” (Hengstenberg, Strauss). On the other hand the parallelism shows that the people in question are rich. Accordingly we must suppose that עַם בְּנַעַז, as in other places כּנעני (Job 40:30 [A. V. Job_41:6]; Pro_31:24; comp. also, Oba_1:20), or even simply כּנעז (Isa_23:8), designates the traders and merchants (Grot., Cölln). That these as the more recent comer’s to the great city should dwell in the outlying new parts of it, is not strange, but natural. [If Hitzig were right in placing the New City, according to the Targum, on Ophel, then it would be still more natural and still more characteristic to seek for the dwellings of the merchants here also. Comp. above, p. 68 a, and Mat_21:12.] [Keil: “The name mortar’ was probably coined by Zephaniah, to point to the fate of the merchants and men of money who lived there. They who dwell there shall howl, because ‘all the people of Canaan are destroyed.’ These are not Canaanitish or Phœnician merchants, but Judæan merchants, who resembled the Canaanites or Phœnicians in their general business (see at Hos_12:8), and had grown rich through trade and usury.”—C. E.]
The third act of punishment (Zep_1:12-13), falls upon the careless despisers. And it will come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles. Theodoret: Οὐδ̓ εἷς τῶν ὀφειλόντων δίκην διαφεύξεται τὴν τιμωρίαν, ἀλλὰ πάντας αὐτοὺς διαδώσω σφαγῇ. And I will visit the men, who lie upon their lees,—like old wine which is not drawn off (comp. Jer_48:11),—and say in their hearts: Jehovah does no good and no evil. He may perhaps exist, but He does nothing to us. “קפאים expresses the spiritual obduracy of those who deny the agency of God in the world (Jer_10:5), and who, in the opinion that chance governs the world, despise exhortation and warning, and live from one day to another.”—Hitzig. By such practical denial of the judgment (comp. Psa_10:11 f.), they call it down upon them (comp. Ps. l. 21 ff.).
Zep_1:13. Their goods, in which they take pleasure, will become plunder, in the midst of the wild alarm of the owners, and their houses desolation. And—what the law and the prophets predicted (Deu_28:30; Amo_5:11) is fulfilled,—they will build houses and not dwell in them, and plant vineyards and not drink their wine. The apodoses contain the proper threatenings in the future; thereby the preterites receive in the protases the signification of the Fut. exactum.
Zep_1:14-18. Second detailed statement in the amplification of Zep_1:7. The Dreadfulness of the Day of Judgment. The day of Jehovah is near, the great [day] (Joe_2:14 (11 ?)) it is near and hastes greatly. מַחֵר is not the participle with מ omitted (Hitz.); but the adverbial infinitive (Joe_2:5) construed with the verb קָרוֹב (comp. Ew., sec. 280 c). Hark (as in Nah_3:2), the day of Jehovah? What is to be heard? bitterly cries the hero there. [“קוֹל before yom Yehõvâh (the day of Jehovah), at the head of an interjectional clause, has almost grown into an interjection (see at Isa_13:4). The hero cries bitterly, because he cannot save himself, and must succumb to the power of the foe.” Keil.—C. E.] שָׁם is not purely local, but generally indicates the situation like our “there” [“da”]. Comp. Nah_3:15; Psa_14:5. a day of wrath is that day (Isa_19:18), a day of anguish and pressure (Job_15:24) a day of desolation and devastation (Job_30:3; on the emphatic reduplication compare Nah_2:11); and it is accompanied not only by terrible signs of destruction upon earth, but also by the troublous agitation of the elements: a day of darkness and gloom (Joe_2:2), a day of clouds and of cloudy darkness (Deu_4:11)—a day of the reappearance of Jehovah amidst the same signs as on Sinai. Comp. on Habakkuk 3.
Zep_1:16. A day of the trumpet and of the war cry [des Geschmetters, battering]. The sound of the trumpet introduces God’s holy festival (Num_29:1 ff.; comp. Zep_1:7 above); it is the signal for the proclamation of God’s power over the sinful people (Hos_8:1); it is the war-signal of desolation (Amo_2:2). All three significations are realized in the day of Jehovah’s holy sacrifice; and the last especially (comp. Jos_6:5) over the fortified cities and high battlements, behind which the wicked people vainly imagine themselves secure (Mic_5:10 [11]).
Zep_1:17. Yea, I will put the people in distress, so that they will walk like blind men,—groping about here and there as insecurely (comp. l) Deu_28:29; Nah_2:5),—for they have sinned against Jehovah; so then their blood shall be poured out (term. technicus in legislation pertaining to sacrifice, comp. Zep_1:7) like dust,—in such quantity (Gen_13:16) and with such contempt (2Ki_13:7),—and their bowels (comp. 2Sa_20:10, properly the contents of the bowels, their food, equivalent to לֶחֶם, Job_20:23. So also Strauss, Cölln, Gesenius, Ewald; Hitzig, according to the Arab., “their flesh”), like dung.
Zep_1:18. Neither their silver, nor their gold—all the classes, whom the prophet, Zep_1:8 ff., declared obnoxious to the judgment, were somehow entangled in silver and gold,—will deliver them (גםלא … גם, neither, nor, as in Exo_5:14. Compare the repetition of the whole passage, Eze_7:19), in the day of Jehovah’s fury; and in the fire of His wrath (comp. 2Ki_22:17), shall the whole earth be devoured; for He will make an end, yea (אךְ, as in Psa_73:1), a sudden one, to all the inhabitants of the earth. כלה וי construed, like Zep_1:8, as a second accusative; literally, He makes all the inhabitants of the earth a destruction.
Chap. 2. Zep_2:1-3. The Exhortation. The first words, התקוששו וקושׁו, are an old famous crux interpretum. Interpreters derive them from the root קשׁשׁ, to which the subst הַשׁ, stubble, belongs; and from which a Poel קוֹשֵׁשׁ, Exo_5:7-12; Num_15:32 f.; 1Ki_17:10-12, with the signification of “gather,” is found. From this the Hithp. reflexivum combined with the Kal for the purpose of strengthening it (comp. Isa_29:6; Hab_1:5), may be derived in the present instance. Some attempt, in the most different ways, to bring into the context the signification of “gather.” Either, collect yourselves in the devotional sense [“applied to that spiritual gathering which leads to self-examination, and is the first condition of conversion.” Keil.—C. E.]; as we use the word in German (Strauss, Keil); or, withdraw, keep yourselves at a distance, sc. from that which is unclean (Hitzig); or assemble yourselves, sc. for a fast [Bussfeier, a penitential solemnity—C. E.] (Chald., Syr., Hier., Cölln). It is scarcely to be denied that by all these interpretations violence is done to the words, and yet in the end no suitable meaning is evolved. In view of these difficulties it seems to me that we should, without hesitation, have recourse to the root, קושׁ, from which the Hebrew is possessed of the derivative קֶשֶׁה, bow, which in Arabic (namely, in the v. conj. corresponding to the Hithp.) has the signification of incurvatus est. The forms are then Hithpolel and Polel (קוֹשְׁשׁוּ=קושׁוּ, comp. יְכוּנֶּנוּ, instead of יְכוּנְנֶנּוּ, Job_31:15), unless one prefers to consider the Dagesch forte in קוֹעֹּיוּ as a Masoretic addition, and the form as imperative Kal. Accordingly, we translate [the words], bend yourselves, bend (comp. the ענוים, the bent, Zep_1:3); and this translation agrees well with the following vocative clause: O nation, (article in the voc., Ges., sec. 109, Rem. 2), that dost not grow pale. The primitive signification of the root, כּסף, is pallescere (comp. כֶסֶף); and this signification is, evidently to be preferred in this place (Grot., Ges., Cölln, Ew., Hitz., Keil) to the more common one to “long after” (Rosenm., Häv., Strauss). The people that do not grow pale (comp. Isa_29:22; Pro_7:13) are the insolent, audacious people (LXX. ἔθνος ἀπαιδευτόν) who sit erect, at ease upon their money bags (comp. Zep_1:12); and whom the prophet hence exhorts to bend themselves, before the stroke comes from above.
Zep_1:2. Before the law bring forth. [This is the reason for the appeal, Zep_1:1.—C.E.] The law is neither the appointed time (Cölln), nor yet the statute of the prophecy, the decree declared in it (the other interpreters), but, as in Mic_7:11, the Mosaic Law, in specie Deuteronomy, which is most familiar to our prophet; that which it brings forth is the curse, which it places in view, the day of wrath itself (Deu_31:17). For everything brings forth what is in it: the earth brings forth plants (Isa_55:10): the wicked, mischief (Job_15:35). And this bringing forth on the part of the law will come with unexpected speed: Zep_1:2, as swiftly (Isa_29:5) as chaff does the time pass away, which still remains for repentance. It is evident that we must understand by יוֹם in this place also, as in chap. 1, the judgment day (Strauss); but the עבר agrees only with the interval of time passing rapidly away; the word does not mean to approach, to draw on, not even in the passage, Nah_3:19, cited for that purpose [to prove that it means to approach, etc.—C. E.] by Strauss. After this short parenthesis the prophet resumes the structure of the sentence with which he commenced: before the wrath of Jehovah .... come upon you.
Zep_1:3. Seek Jehovah, all ye humble of the land: ענוי הארע, an idea very frequent in the l’salms, at first rare in the prophets, but then always coming prominently into view: the quiet, the humble in the land, whose righteous conduct is especially manifested in their separation from the proud (Zep_1:8 ff.) in lowliness and humility before God (comp. Mic_6:8),—Ye who have observed his right [law—C. E.]—have not loved strange apparel and practiced idolatry—seek righteousness, seek humility: the exhortation is addressed to all, who in general are still willing to hear (comp. Zep_1:1): perhaps you may yet be hidden in the day of Jehovah’s wrath.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The separation of the godly-minded race from the ungodly-minded is a fundamental principle [Grundpfeiler, foundation-pillar] of the order of the kingdom of God. When both races were at the first intermingled, the fruit of the union was the Delude (Genesis 6.). Hence nothing was so distinctly enjoined by God when He founded his kingdom anew with Abraham and Moses as the going out from fatherland and kindred, the segregation, in one word the sanctification of the nation for Himself. But gradually, during the decline of the kingdom, the amalgamation of the kingdom of God and of the idolatry of the world again crept in. A clear separation between the nature of Jehovah and that of idols is yet scarcely possible, and the substance of the national life is infected by the godless influences that had flowed in; partly, in such a way that the community make themselves guilty of idolatry, partly because a corrupting deposit of complete indifference was formed. Therefore, Zephaniah announces a new deluge. Comp. Zep_1:2 f. with Gen_6:7.
Religion and morality are two spheres which cannot be separated. An upright heart can have only one God, and in cherishing other gods besides God lies a falseness, which bears its fruit in the field of morals. Whilst the heart, in its profoundest depths, is actuated by two diametrically opposite opinions, it is necessary that these influences should finally neutralize one another. In this way arises indifference toward motives drawn from eternal things. This indifference has a twofold result: First, temporal motives, among which the most powerful are pride (fashion) and avarice, take the place of eternal. In the second place, the other result of this fearless, practical atheism is: God does no good and no evil.
In the O. T. atheism has always its baneful effect in the sphere of the practical. It is not so much a denying of the divine existence, as of the divine judgment. Comp. Psalms 14. As the wisdom of the pious man is fear of God, so the folly of the godless man is fearlessness of God. “The godless say in their hearts: God does no evil and no god” (Zep_1:12). What does the phrase, “in their hearts,” mean? Although shame and fear deter men from publicly exhibiting their unrighteousness, yet they utter those thoughts secretly, and are of the opinion that God either does not exist, or that He sits tranquilly in heaven. This is the very climax of godlessness, when men, intoxicated with sensual pleasure, divest God of his office of judge: when He is not recognized as judge, what remains of his godhead ? The majesty and the kingdom of God do not consist in any visionary splendor, but in duties, which belong so entirely to Him alone, that they cannot be separated from his being. To Him it belongs to own, to govern the world, to care for the human race, to distinguish between good and evil, to succor the miserable, to punish crime, to suppress unjust power. He who deprives Him of this retains an idol.” Calvin. The theocratic atheism8 is foreign to the O. T., as in general abstract thinking is not a Biblical idea. “When the Scripture speaks of thinking, it includes the will with it, and gives us to understand that thinking and willing are one and the same act in man. For a living man so thinks, that he at the same time loves, hates, hopes, fears the thing of which he thinks, is inclined or averse to it; he so wills that he wills λογικῶς, and he cannot will, without at the same time thinking’ of that which is willed. The thoughts do not pre cede the will, but they include it, and are in a certain manner intellectual acts of the will. It is evident that neither the imagination and purpose (Gen_6:5), nor the doubting or joyful thoughts, nor the crafty and especially political thoughts. (Pro_12:5), nor, in general, the word חשׁב with its derivatives, can be correctly interpreted if we separate the will from them. It is nowhere said that thoughts have guided, disordered, or misled the will; but it is said that man is misled by them, or walks after them. The Scripture ascribes also to the thoughts malice, injustice, and perversity, which could not be done, unless they were, at the same time, acts of the will.” Roos.
As the error of atheists is act [practical], so also they can he made sensible of it only by act. The light, under which they apprehend it, is likewise the light of the approaching judgment, with which God punishes them. They are accustomed to look upon everything that happens, in a fatalistic manner, as a necessary cycle of sowing and harvesting, of building and possessing, and to disregard the factor of divine grace lying at the foundation of the whole. Therefore God must break up at once this cycle; He must cause the fruit to fail the seed, the inhabitancy to fail the building: then they become aware that He exists. Then the insolent heroes cry bitterly.
The most pernicious fruit of indifference is the shamelessness, which no longer turns pale. “Shame is the first prophetess, when thou turnest aside, the first that beckons thee back again to the land of peace,—[it is] consciousness of guilt, an arrow of conscience, a ray of God Almighty in the very act, a turning back of the course of our blood and thoughts, of our sea of emotions and instincts; a μετάνοια of our body.” Herder. As the extinction of shame indicates, in the individual man, the beginning of a hopeless condition, so does it also in the life of a nation. So long as the whole body of the people retains a feeling of shame, many individual, even heinous sins, may be borne, without serious injury to the whole. But if that ceases, then the enormity of individual crimes, considered, in comparison with earlier times, may perhaps prove a kind of progress in civilization, and yet the condition of the whole may have become thereby a much more vicious one. Even that progress commonly lies in the laxity of the moral judgment.
However unexpectedly the acts of God come, their seeds, nevertheless, always exist anyhow already in the present, and they are disposed into the continuity of one divine guidance of the kingdom from the beginning forward. The seed of the judgment lies in the law. This fact implies that the judgment is not merely a negative, but a positive act of God. It is a birth, although a birth under the form of death.
The decisive turning-point, which from the Old Testament history of the kingdom takes the direction of that of the New Testament, is the abandonment of the nation as such by the prophets. Zephaniah discriminates between an ecclesia in the ecclesia, and this exhortation, so far as hope is expressed in it, is intended for this congregation of the lowly and humble.
With this begins the stand-point of the abandonment, which, continued by the later prophets, has its ultimate fulfillment in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. At the same time a Messianic progress lies in this apparent retrogression. Because, viz., the internal condition of a humble mind takes the place of the external one of national relationship, a new point of view determines their adoption to salvation. In this view even those who are not Israelites may fulfill the preliminary conditions of salvation (Act_10:35). To the Anavah—humility well pleasing to God—belongs also the renunciation of the particular privileges of descent from Abraham.
Cocceius: The day of the Lord, in the widest sense, is that time in which God proves Himself as King, Lord, and Judge: in a narrower sense, it is that day which all the prophets have longed to see,—the day of the appearance of God in the New Covenant. Accordingly the day of the Lord is to be understood principally of the advent of the Messiah in the flesh, which is connected with the judgment upon the unbelieving; but moreover it is also to be understood of the immediate forerunner of that day. So Zephaniah announces as its precursor and herald another day along with the destruction of offenses, and purification by means of the Babylonian captivity. And where the prophets speak of the times after the advent of Christ, the day of the Lord is the last judgment day, which times, like the destruction of Jerusalem and the Reformation, precede, like trumpets, and announce the coming of the Lord to the kingdom of the world and to the final judgment.
Strauss: Thus a sacred edifice is built before our eyes, whose foundation stands on God’s righteous love and our sin; to which every act of punishment and every manifestation of grace adds a stone, on which finally, after the close of all history, the crown is set by the judgment of the world.
HOMILETICAL
What must we do in order to escape (Zep_2:3) the coming wrath (Zep_1:2; Zep_3:7)?
1. Seek righteousness: turn yourselves—
(a) From the unrighteousness of a divided heart, which would give a part to God and a part to idols (Zep_1:4-5.)
(b) From the unrighteousness of a cold heart which does not care for God, and deprives Him of the honor due to Him. (Zep_1:6.)
2. Seek humility: turn—
(a) From the pride of sensual pleasure, (Zep_1:8-9.)
(b) From the pride of avarice, (Zep_1:9-12.)
3. Do it speedily, for—
(a) The day is coming shortly, (Zep_1:14 ff.)
(b) Helpless is the situation of those who meet it unprepared, (Zep_1:17; Zep_2:1.)
(c) The Word of God is unchangeable. (Zep_2:2 a.)
(d) The time quickly passes away. (Zep_2:2 b.)
On Zep_1:2 f.: We have in the best case our pleasure in the wonderful power and wisdom of God, who has made all things in the world so glorious, and who governs them so well. We think too little of the fact, that as everything is from Him, so He can make an end of everything at once. To the godless man, who does not see in the universe the creative hand of one God, the whole world is a heap of ruins. No wonder that he feels, in judgment and in death, as if the ruins were falling over him. To the pious man, however, in this painful moment, the anticipative recognition of the divine ordering [of the world—C. E.] is a strong support [säule, pillar]: he has consolation in his death. Pro_14:32. How much has God to judge in thy heart, if He will destroy “the remnant of Baal.” The service of the one God is the most simple, and yet for the regulation of life the most difficult; all are involuntarily syncretists, and the heart is full of altars. How many a one kindles a fire for the truth, but in the impure flame one must perceive that the altar, on which he kindles it, is erected, not to God, but to the idol of his sordid zeal. Every idol is a master; one may call it Baal, or Moloch, or Adon (Zep_1:9): the meaning of the words is the same; he who does not serve God is all the more a slave. (Rom_6:16-19.) And his is indeed a slavery to unrighteousness, for none of the idols which we honor has surpassed us in anything, that we should be under obligation to recompense it.—Zep_1:6. He who does not ask after God, is to be considered eo ipso an apostate. There is an indifference in external peace, which is worse than direct hostility against God, because more hopeless. He who flatters such indifference, as if it were piety, is also a servant of unrighteousness.—Zep_1:7. One thing is wanting in this sacrifice of the Old Testament,—the purity of the victim. The perfect sacrifice of the divine judgment of wrath is Jesus Christ. In this God has also sanctified his guests; in spite of themselves and without knowing it, Caiphas and Herod and Pilate are obliged to bear testimony to God.—Zep_1:8 f. Those who wear soft raiment are in kings houses. Even where a righteous king rules, court air is a dangerous air, and whoever is placed in it must keep a threefold watch over his heart; that he do not fall into vicious habits; that he do not practice idolatry with earthly things; that he do not, without intending it, by means of adulation, partisan conduct, or by laziness, heap up deceit and crime. An upright heart finds the way even here (Jer_38:7 ff.). An evangelical minister should not dishonor the house of his God by a strange dressing of his body and imitation of strange ceremonies. Whoever thinks to increase the property [Habe] of God by dishonest means, legacy-hunting, etc., makes God an idol.—Zep_1:10 f. Trade and traffic are good things; but they are not the pillars, on which a kingdom stands firm.—Zep_1:11. If men allow the light to go out in their heart and conscience (Psa_119:105), God must set up his light. Although they do not come to the light, yet the time is coming when they will not be asked whether they will come or not.—Zep_1:12. A knowledge of God’s existence does not determine the salvation of the soul. With it the soul may become corrupt and perish. The life of man is action, and piety is found, where the will conforms itself to the acts of God. Such a man cannot remain at ease, for in the kingdom of God there is everywhere much to do.—Zep_1:13. It is painful to be obliged to forsake his goods and the work of his hands. And yet this is the lot of all, who have obtained possession of only earthly things, and who have been occupied with earthly things. They come to the judgment with hands entirely empty. For such (Zep_1:14) the day of God is always too near. Then all those, who, as long as they were in full possession of their earthly goods and powers, were esteemed by every one mighty heroes, become cowards. For what they esteemed power was not their own.—Zep_1:15 ff. How does he quake, who from all his possessions, plans, and devious ways has been cast into the solitary prison. What must it be only to be inclosed by God’s prison? There even the stoutest bulwarks of the heart break in pieces before the sound of God’s trumpet. There even the most ingenious plan is like the groping of a blind man. For the things with which man is accustomed to plan and to act, refuse their service. There even the most audacious head must bow (Zep_2:1).—Zep_1:2. We need not tremble before the dark powers of the world, which are pregnant with mischief and destruction; but before that, by which the law of God, which judges us, is pregnant. Thanks to God that He himself has begotten the Son, who has destroyed the curse engendered by the law. But make haste to be saved. In the whole Gospel we read only of one, who was saved at the twelfth hour; for how many has the time passed away. In the O. T. the “day of the Lord” is the day of wrath: in the N. T. it is the day of joy.—Zep_1:3. Mere humiliation and fear are of no use; by them one may attempt many foolish expedients (Mic_6:6 ff.; Gen_4:13 ff.; Mat_27:5). Positive action must accompany them: the seeking of God with the whole heart and an assurance of deliverance founded on faith. It is no contradiction, therefore, when it is said, Ye humbled ones seek humility. The disposition produced by the preaching of judgment must become conscious action and steadfast way.
Luther: Zep_1:4. The pious king effected the much, that idolatry did not rule. Nevertheless some always remained. And we have no reason yet to hope, that, were we going to suppress all ungodly practices in the same way, all men would become pious. For if that could have been done, it would certainly have been done by this king, who was considered preëminently faithful, over the law and service of God. The Chemarim were a remarkable people and well disciplined in the idolatrous service, for they took their name from their earnest and great devotion. They produced an erroneous opinion among the people, that they were of all others the most assiduous in religion and divine worship. I am entirely of the opinion that they were such people as the monks of the present day are.—Zep_1:8. It is evident that he speaks of the most powerful, who imitated the foreign customs, dress, and manners of the surrounding countries, abandoned their native manners, usages, and dress, just like the Germans of our time, who are apes of almost all nations. But this is a proof of a great frivolity and of an unstable disposition Magnisque negation, stare diu (Zep_2:3). This prophet, beyond all others, urges humility. He knows well that only the lowly please God, and that, on the contrary, the proud, pompous, and hardened despisers displease him.
Starke: Zep_1:1. God bears with the ungodly for a time and does good to them by pious magistrates and preachers, in order that He may thereby lead them to repentance.—Zep_1:2. To human eyes it certainly appears that war arises from this or that quarrel among men, but the Scripture teaches us that the exciting cause of all wars is the sin and guilt of the land, by which God is moved to vengeance. There is no calamity, which the Lord does not send (Amo_3:6).—Zep_1:4. God is bound to no place. When the wickedness of men increases in a city, He causes it to be laid waste, though the true religion has long borne sway in it.—Zep_1:5. The announcement that God would extirpate idolaters, who wished to unite idolatry with the true worship of God, could powerfully strengthen the faithful in their struggle. The true worship of God suffers no idolatry by the side of it. It is quite possible, that those who have been once born again may lose their faith and fall from the grace of God. Seeking and asking suppose a salutary knowledge of God, by which his goodness and kindness are tasted. When we have tasted these the longing after God becomes always greater; then we seek to know God always more and more truly.—Zep_1:7. Ungodly people complain, when they are obliged to hear the divine threatenings on account of their sins, or to feel the hand of God, but pious people are still and bear the wrath of the Lord.—Zep_1:9. He who brings unlawful possessions into his house, brings the divine curse with them.—Zep_1:11. To ply trade is not wrong in itself; but God does not allow dishonesty in it to go unpunished.—Zep_1:12. Those who are in the Church, and yet deny the divine omniscience, are worse than the heathen. Before destruction comes security. Wine is agitated and turbid, when it is poured out of one cask into another; but if it remains in one cask, it settles and produces tartar. So it is with hypocrites: they listen, to be sure, to the preaching of the prophets; but they do not allow themselves to be made uneasy thereby in their consciences, and become finally as hard as stone.—Zep_1:14. God gives courage, and can take it away.—Zep_1:17. That men err in counsel is a judgment of God.—Zep_1:18. If the wrath of an earthly king is a messenger of death (Pro_16:14; Est_7:7), how much more the terrible wrath of Almighty God.—Chap. 2. Zep_1:1. Though no man can become entirely perfect in piety here, yet we must see to it that we do not stand still in godliness, much less go back, but always advance and become more perfect from day to day. God has power to hide his own in the day of wrath upon the ungodly.
Pfaff: Zep_1:5. Those who swear by the Lord, and who say, “as sure as the Lord liveth,” are not meant alone, but those also who have sworn obedience and fidelity to the Lord and yet practice idolatry and also wish to unite the true with the false worship of God.—Zep_1:8. The foolish imitation of foreign dress and fashions is a sign of great vanity and of a damnable pride. This vanity also will be punished. To build houses, to plant vineyards, to use the possessions of this world, is entirely right. But then they become a snare to him who does not consecrate his work by means of sincere conversion to the Lord.—Zep_1:16. What terror will the day of the last trumpet produce among men! Let then the voice of this trumpet sound now in our ears, in order that we may, while it is yet the time of grace, turn to the Lord.—Zep_1:18. Ye rich, your silver and your gold cannot deliver you in the day of God’s wrath. Seek then a possession which remains and endures forever.—Chap 2. Zep_1:1. Nothing is more necessary and more useful for one who is desirous of his salvation, than self-examination. How much better is it that we judge ourselves before we are judged of the Lord.
Rieger: From the whole representation of the prophet one sees with what great earnestness that which is recorded (2Ki_23:25 ff.), was spoken: Josiah turned himself with his whole heart, with his whole soul, with all his might, to the Lord; yet the Lord turned not from the fury of his wrath and said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight. The like may often happen in one (Anion’s) reign that God will never cease until He has destroyed not only the ungodly, but also their offenses [that against which or by which a person meets with a fall—a stumbling-block, scandal. See Exeget., Zep_1:3—C. E.], not only the sinful customs introduced by them, but also the places and houses, which have become to others ways to hell. How accurately does God know what a wicked heart all outbreaks of sin have as their source, since they do not even fear God, do not esteem Him, do not ask after Him. And again, how does He examine not only the hearts and reins, but observe also what kind of dress men wear. What does God often draw forth from that which is concealed as soon as He begins to search with candles. How little consolation do even great possessions give in the day of such wrath.—Chap. 2. Zep_1:1 ff. At first the prophet must certainly have discovered something good among the entire hostile people by which they might still enjoy a mitigation in the day of judgment. But when there was little or nothing to be discovered among them, he nevertheless addresses those in distress, who, under the prevailing unrighteousness, had to suffer more than pleasure from it, and he rouses them, that they may not fall asleep over the necessity of the time, but seek the Lord, who conceals himself at such a time, and that with all the consolation of a good conscience in righteousness, they should nevertheless, though doomed to every kind of sorrow, resign themselves to humility. Although every one in such common calamities is involved in much trouble, yet there are exceptions enough, if one is so concealed, as, e.g., in the destruction of Jerusalem, was the case with the prophet Jeremiah (Jer_39:11 f.), Baruch (Jer 65:5), Ebedmelech (Jer_39:17 f.).
Burck: On Zep_1:1. God, therefore, permitted the reign of the pious Josiah to precede the final doom of Judah, in order that all excuse might be taken from the Jews. They might have said, Our kings compelled us to this and to that. If so, the answer was now ready: Josiah did not compel you, rather, as far as he could, he sought to turn you; but ye continued obstinate.
Theodoret: Zep_1:4. For as I (Jehovah) made fowls and fishes and cattle for the service of men, so will I destroy the former also with the latter. They are unnecessary where there are none to make use of them.
Hieron.: The dumb brutes also feel the wrath of God. When men and cities are destroyed, then one sees also that beasts, birds, etc., disappear. Of this Illyria, Thrace, and also Judæa bear testimony. I come from the last named country, and there everything except heaven and earth and increasing wilderness has perished.
Schlier: Zep_1:4. Not much was gained by Josiah’s reformation. Therefore the Lord himself will undertake a reformation.
Theremin: Zep_1:7. God Will first speak in the judgment. He will say, Ye had Moses and the prophets; ye had my words, which are light and life; why would ye not hear them? These reproaches will roll like thunder in the ears of the guilty. Then the thunders will be silent, and the judge will be silent, and a silence more terrible than the thunder will ensue,—the silence of the eternal decision.
Abarbanel: Zep_1:11. Because the people have become like the Canaanites in sin, therefore, like them also shall they be driven out of Canaan.
Schmieder: The prophet uses the name of a part of the city (“Mörser,” mortar), in order to intimate that those who dwell there, are about to be brayed in this mortar.
Hieron.: Zep_1:13. He will leave nothing unpunished. If we read the history of Josephus, it is there written, how the princes, priests, and nobles were drawn from cloacæ, lurking-places, pits, and ditches, where they had concealed themselves in fear of death.
Keil: In the carnal repose of their earthly fortune they think in their hearts, that there is no God, who rules and judges the world, that everything takes place by chance, or according to inanimate laws of nature. They did not deny the existence of God, but they denied, in their disposition and conduct, the working of the living God in the world, they regarded Jehovah on a level with dead idols, which neither do good nor evil. Isa_41:23.
J. Schmid: The prophet employs such an accumulation of almost synonymous words in order to intimate on the one hand the certainty of the thing, and on the other to inspire the Jews with fear, and to deprive them of all excuse, that they have not been sufficiently warned, and that with suitable warning they would have sought the reconciliation of God.
Strauss: Zep_1:16. The sacrifice of joy (Psa_27:6),9 which the ungrateful people did not wish to bring, God himself now prepares. The power which of the trumpet’s sound continues irresistible; once it captured the cities of Judah, now it destroys them who were once captors.
Cocceius: Chap. 22 Zep_1:3. To seek God, i.e., to direct every wish, thought, and effort to this end, that one may know where He is and how holy He is, and what are his ways, in order that thou mayest exalt Him, and fleeing to Him enjoy Him as thy own. To seek righteousness, i.e., to wish to possess that condition, by which man is an heir of the kingdom of heaven,—a condition which man does not have of himself. (Hab_2:4.) To seek humility, i.e., to seek that condition of soul, by which man renounces himself and his righteousness, trusts in God, and cheerfully forgives his neighbor for God’s sake.
Footnotes:
[1][Zep_1:2.—אָסֹף אָסף, the infinitive of the verb אָסַף with the Hiphil of the cognate verb סוּף. See Green’s Heb. Gram., sec. 282, a. LXX.: ’Ἐκλείψει ἐκλειπέτο; Vulg.: Congregans congregabo.
[2][Zep_1:3.—וְהַמַּכְשֵׁלוֹת, sing. ruina, Isa_3:6; plur. de idolis, Zep_1:3, Ges., Thes, s. v. כָשַׁל, p. 721, b. LXX.: Καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν οἱ ἀσεβεῑς; Vulg.: et ruinœ impiorum erunt; Luth.: sammt den Aergernissen, etc.; Kleinert: und die Trümmer.
[3][Zep_1:4.—הַכְּמָרִים, sacerdotes idotorum, 2Ki_23:5; Hos_10:5. Ges, Thes. s. v. כֹּמֶר, p. 693, a. LXX.: τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν ἱερέων; Vulg.: et nomina œdituorum; Kleinert: die Namen der Pfaffen.
[4][Zep_1:5.—מַלְכָּם, pr. n. of an idol of the Moabites and Ammonites, e. g., מִלְכֹּם and מֹלֶךְ, Jer_49:1-3 But in Zep_1:5 and Amo_1:15, מַלְכָם is an appellative, their king, e. g. Malcham. Ges.: “Name der Gottheit der Ammonder, mit מֹלֶךְ eig. ident., Jer_49:1-3; Amo_1:15; Zef. Zep_1:5.” Fürst: Heb. u. Chald. Handwörterbuch. LXX.: τοῦ βασιλέως αὐτων; Vulg. Melchom; Luth. Malchom; Kleinert, Melech. See Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, s. v., “Malcham.”
[5][Zep_1:10.—הַמִּשְׁנִה (the second), “Neh_9:9 et 2 Reg. 22:14, pars urbis secundaria vocabatur certa pars Hierosolymorum, fortasse nova quœdam pars vel suburbium.” Ges., Thes.. s. v., p. 1451, b. LXX.: ἀπὸ τῆς δευτέρας Vulg.: a secunda; Luth.: von dem andern Thor; Kleinert: von der Neustadt. Smith’s Dict. of the Bible: “The mention of Huldah, the prophetess, introduces us to the lower city under the name of ‘the Mishneh’ (הַמִּשׁנֶה, A. V. ‘college,’ ‘school,’ or ‘second part’).” Vol. i. p. 994, b.
[6][Zep_1:11.—הַמַּכְתֵּשׁ, literally “the mortar,” probably a deep hollow, so called from its resemblance to a mortar. See Exeget. Zep_1:11.
[7][Zep_2:1.—הִתְקוֹשְׁשׁוּ וָקוֹשׁוּ: The LXX., Vulg., and Luth. translate these words, as if they were derived from קָשַׁשׁ, to gather; but Kleinert prefers to derive them from קוֹשׁ, to bend. Ges. and Fürst take them from קָשַש.—C. E.]
[8][Kleinert has “Der theokratische Atheismus:” he probably wrote “Der theoretische Atheismus.—C. E.]
[9][The allusion to Psa_27:6 is better understood by the marginal reading, “sacrifices of shouting.” The Heb. word rendered “shouting” in Psa_27:6 is the same word employed by the prophet, Zep_1:16, and rendered “alarm.” In Lev_25:9 the same word signifies the sound of a trumpet. Hence the pertinence of the allusion to Psa_27:6 by Strauss.—C. E.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–18 utterly consume--from a root to "sweep away," or "scrape…
utterly consume--from a root to "sweep away," or "scrape off utterly." See Jer 8:13, Margin, and here.
from off the land--of Judah.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 1. The title.
1. The title.
The word of Jehovah which came — See on Hos_1:1. For the genealogy of the prophet see p. 505; for the date of his ministry, pp. 506ff.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Chap. 1 The Title
Chap. 1 The Title
1. The word … unto Zephaniah] The name Zephaniah means, He whom Jehovah has hid, that is, treasures, or protects. The name is not uncommon, Jer_21:1; Jer_52:24; Zec_6:10.
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the son of Hizkiah] Hizkiah or Hezekiah may be the king of that name. It is unusual to carry the genealogy of a prophet further up than his father, and the exception in the present case suggests that Hezekiah, the last link in the chain, was a person of distinction. See Introduction, § 1.
in the days of Josiah … king of Judah] The words “king of Judah” refer to Josiah, not to his father Amon. Josiah reigned b.c. 639–608.
The Book
The Book has two great divisions: First, ch. Zep_1:2 to Zep_3:8, a threat of judgment on the world: on Judah and the nations; and secondly, a promise of salvation equally universal, ch. Zep_3:9-20. The judgment is that of the great day of the Lord. The prophet represents it as universal, but concentrating itself on Judah, ch. Zep_1:2 to Zep_2:3; then as involving the nations, ch. Zep_2:4-15; and finally he speaks of Judah and the nations together, ch. Zep_3:1-8.
The passage ch. Zep_1:2 to Zep_2:3 has these divisions: (1) Judgment on all created things, and especially on Judah and Jerusalem (Zep_1:2-7); (2) the classes in Jerusalem whom God will search out and punish (Zep_1:8-13); (3) the terrors of the day of the Lord (Zep_1:14-18); (4) exhortation to men to seek righteousness that they may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger (ch. Zep_2:1-3).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–18 (1) Hizkiah.—Or, Hezekiah; possibly the king of that name…
(1) Hizkiah.—Or, Hezekiah; possibly the king of that name (see Introd. I.).
(1-6) Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem is impending on account of a religious apostacy of manifold forms and degrees. The wide range of this judgment.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Vers. 1-18. Part I THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE…
Vers. 1-18. Part I THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE WORLD, AND UPON JUDAH IN PARTICULAR.
Title and Inscription. the word of the Lord (see note on Mic_1:1). Zephaniah, "Whom the Lord shelters" (see Introduction, The son of, etc. The genealogy thus introduced shows that the prophet was of illustrious descent; or it may be inserted to distinguish him from others who bore the same name. Hizkiah. The same name which is elsewhere written in our version Hezekiah. Whether the great King of Judah is here meant may well be questioned (see Introduction). Other prophets have prefixed their genealogies to their books. (see Zec_1:1; and in the Apocrypha, RAPC Bar 1:1) In the days of Josiah. Zephaniah here gathers into one volume the denunciations and predictions which he had uttered daring the reign of Josiah, both before and after the great reformation effected by that good king. (2Ki 23)
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Vers. 1-3. The prophet and his times.
I HIS PEDIGREE. (Ver. 1) This is the solitary instance in which the lineage of a prophet is traced back in Scripture four generations. The reason would seem to be in order to indicate his relationship to Hezekiah, the pious King of Judah. Note:
1. The honour connected with a pious ancestry.
2. The perpetuity of the influence of a good life.
II HIS AUTHORITY. This was not derived from his royal descent, but from his being under the inspiration of the Almighty. "The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah" (ver. 1). The words of those high in rank are often invested with a value they do not intrinsically possess, but the utterances of this prince of Judah claim our regard as the words of one taught by the Spirit of God.
III HIS AGE. He prophesied "in the days of Josiah the son of Anion, King of Judah" (ver. 1). Unhappily, the reforms instituted by the good Hezekiah had not been sustained during the succeeding reigns, so that the nation, both politically and spiritually, had relapsed into a thoroughly corrupt state by the time that the boy-king Josiah came to the throne. Consecrated from early life to the service of the true God, the youthful monarch devoted the energies of his early manhood to the rooting out of idolatry from his land, and to the restoration and re-establishment of the temple and its services. Zephaniah, doubtless, prophesied shortly before this work of reformation commenced, and the influence of his faithful ministry would be helpful to the royal reformer in carrying out his noble work.
IV THE CHARACTER OF THE MESSAGE WITH WHICH HE WAS DIVINELY ENTRUSTED, This was:
1. Very dark. He was, indeed, a messenger of judgment; the solemn responsibility devolved upon him of announcing "the terrors of the Lord" (vers. 2, 3). The anger of the Lord was kindled against Judah, and though to be delayed until Josiah should be gathered to his rest, it must at length. (2Ki_22:8-20 2Ki_23:21-27 2Ch_34:8-33 2Ch_35:1-19)
2. Very comprehensive. His predictions of judgment were not limited to Judah, but were directed also against heathen nations Philistia, Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria (ch. 2).
3. Yet withal not lacking encouragement; for whilst he told of impending judgment, he called to repentance, unfolded the mercy of the Most High, and indicated how that even the darkest events impending would be overruled for the well being of the race.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW Vers. 1-6. A prophet of doom.
I MEANING OF HIS NAME. Zephaniah, "One whom Jehovah hides." Hiding in the day of calamity a blessing promised to them that fear, (Psa_31:19, Psa_31:20) who are therefore styled God"s hidden ones, (Psa_83:4) and may confidently reckon upon God"s extending to them his protecting care in the midst of peril, (Psa_27:5) yea, may even boldly flee unto him to hide them. (Psa_143:9)
II THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON. The scion of a kingly house, "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah." Mentioned here, not because they had been prophets, but probably because they had been celebrated persons, perhaps good men, these ancestors of Zephaniah three of them, like himself, with Jehovah in his name may have been introduced to show that the prophet, while descended from the good King Hezekiah, belonged to a different branch of the family from Manasseh and Amon; proceeded from the line in which Hezekiah"s goodness was transmitted, and thus had more than royal blood in his veins (not always an advantage) hereditary piety in his soul.
III THE TIME OF HIS APPEARING.
1. The age fixed.
(1) "The days of Josiah, the son of Amen, King of Judah;" i.e. not before B.C. 640, when Josiah began to reign.
(2) Before the fall of Nineveh, (Zep_2:13) which took place in B.C. 625.
(3) Probably after Josiah"s reformation had begun and before it was completed, since the prophet speaks of a "remnant of Baal" as existing at the time when he began to prophesy.
(4) Hence the date of Zephaniah may be placed between Josiah"s twelfth and eighteenth years, or between B.C. 628-622 (Hitzig, Keil, and Delitzsch), though by some interpreters (Ewald, Havernick, Pusey) it has been fixed earlier to wit, prior to Josiah"s twelfth year.
2. Its character declared.
(1) Generally, as regards the whole land of Judah, an age of widely spread, deeply seated, and well nigh incurable wickedness, of deplorable religious apostasy, of intensely debasing idolatry, of shameless hypocrisy, and of gross worldliness and indifference to Divine things (ver. 4).
(2) Particularly, as regards Jerusalem, an age of rebellion, disobedience, irreligion, prayerlessness, unbelief, violence, treachery, desecration of Jehovah"s sanctuary, insensibility to correction, and deep-seated immorality, (Zep_3:1-4) with all of which the metropolis and its inhabitants were chargeable. (of. Jer 5 Jer 6)
IV THE SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION. "The word of Jehovah." Whether this came to him by direct revelation through voice (Jer_1:4) or vision, (Isa_1:1 Isa_2:1) or indirectly by meditation on the moral and political condition of his countrymen as well as on the character of Jehovah and the laws of righteousness by which he governs the universe, is not said and need not be inquired into. It suffices to know that the prophet claimed for his message that it had been expressly given him put into his heart and mouth by Jehovah; while his predictions certainly were such as could not have been announced without the aid of Divine inspiration.
V THE BURDEN OF HIS PROPHECY. Judgment.
1. Divine. The instrument is not mentioned; the first cause alone is placed in the foreground will utterly consume;" "I will cut off;" "I will stretch out mine hand." The present day tendency is to set God in the background, if not to deny his agency altogether, alike in the production of material phenomena and in the superintendence of the social, moral, and political worlds, and to concentrate attention principally, if not exclusively, upon what are merely God"s instruments. The prophet"s way of looking at men and things accorded more with sound philosophy and true science, not to say sincere religion, than the practice prevailing in many so called enlightened circles today.
2. Universal. The judgment should embrace the wide earth. "All and beast, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling blocks and the wicked should be arraigned at Jehovah"s bar. If the language pointed not to a general judgment of men and nations at the end of the world, it at least emphasized the thought that no part of the world, no age or nation, could escape the ordeal of appearing before Heaven"s tribunal or elude the grasp of Divine retribution. The terms in which Jehovah declares his purpose to visit the wicked with destruction are such as to show that the complete fulfilment of the prophecy can only be reached in the great and terrible day of the Lord at the close of time. (cf. Isa_24:1-23)
3. Particular. While enclosing the whole world in its sweep, the threatened judgment should fall with a special stroke upon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem as it were beginning with the house of God. (1Pe_4:17) That the instruments of judgment would be the Scythians of whom Herodotus (1:15, 103, 106; 4:10, 12) speaks as having invaded Upper and Higher Asia (Hitzig, Ewald, Bertheau), is not supported by sufficient evidence, whilst the fact that neither Herodotus nor the Old Testament reports any conquest of Jerusalem by them seems decisive against their being considered the executors of Jehovah"s wrath. The agents actually employed were the Chaldeans, (2Ki_25:9) though it was not Zephaniah"s purpose to indicate by whom the judgments should be carried out.
4. Complete. Thorough going; upon both the world in general and Judah in particular. "I will utterly consume all from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
(1) As regards the world, the destruction should be as wide sweeping as had been that of the Deluge. (Gen_7:21)
(2) As regards Judah and Jerusalem, the purgation as effective. "The remnant of Baal should be cut off," i.e. root and branch, extirpated, or the work of extirpation, if already begun, should be carried forward till not a vestige of the hated idol worship should be seen.
(a) First, the idolatrous priests of both kinds should be swept away the Chemarim, or "the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem"; (2Ki_23:5 Hos_10:5) and the priests, not "the idolatrous priests in the stricter sense" (Keil), but the unworthy priests of Jehovah who had either secretly or openly favoured the prevailing Baal worship (Fausset, Farrar).
(b) Next, the idol worshippers of both kinds should be cut off the thorough paced devotees of the heathen cultus, who worshipped the host of heaven upon the house tops, and the temporizers who tried to combine the worship of Jehovah with that of Baal, offering oaths of allegiance partly to Jehovah and partly to their king, i.e. Baal.
(c) And finally, apostates and open despisers of the Jehovah religion should be punished those who had turned back from serving Jehovah, and those who had never served him at all (ver. 6).
Learn:
1. The value of an honoured and pious ancestry.
2. The light the Word of God (contained in Scripture) can cast upon the future.
3. The certainty of a day of judgment fur men and nations.
4. The impossibility of eluding the just judgment of God.
5. The inevitable ruin of them who will not serve God.
6. The impossibility of trying to serve God and idols.
7. The danger of neglecting religion hardly less than that of apostatizing from it. T.W.
HOMILIES BY J.S. CANDLISH Vers. 1-18. The judgment threatened.
We learn from ver. 1 that Zephaniah received from the Lord his message to Judah in the days of Josiah, the last of the godly and reforming kings, who, after the gross corruption of the preceding reigns of Manasseh and Amon, restored to a large extent the purity of the worship of God, and was the means of bringing about a certain kind and degree of repentance and amendment in the people. Probably, however, the major part of Zephaniah"s prophecy belongs to the early part of Josiah"s reign, before his greatest public reformation was begun; for there is no allusion to that hopeful work in the book of the prophet, and there is no mention of Zephaniah in the history, where Jeremiah and Huldah the prophetess are described as aiding and guiding the king"s efforts to bring the people back to godliness. But the word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah doubtless prepared the way for the work of full reformation, though the messenger may not have been spared to take part and rejoice in it. His message is, first, an announcement of the judgment of Jehovah against the people, which occupies the whole of ch. 1; and ver. 7 may be taken as its central point, containing the lesson of duty, on which all that precedes and follows it converges. We shall best feel the force of this lesson if we begin from the outside of this oracle, the more obvious and manifest appearance of the judgment of Jehovah here announced, which the prophet puts at the beginning and end (vers. 2, 3, 14-18).
I THE NATURE OF THIS JUDGMENT. At the very outset it is described in a way. fitted to startle and alarm; for it is to be of a most sweeping and universal nature (vers. 2, 3). The words remind us of nothing less than the universal deluge, by which the old world was swept away. A destruction like that is impending over Judah. There had been many chastisements sent on the people before; the land had been invaded, the royal treasuries rifled, the country laid waste. No fewer than ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been not very long before carried away into Assyria. Still, these visitations had been only partial; a remnant had always been left; and many were apt to trust that so it would ever be. Because God had given Israel the land, they thought that some part of it at least must always be theirs. But now they are warned that this is a false confidence, and that, in spite of the gift of the land to Abraham"s seed, the corrupt race that now inhabit it shall be utterly cut off. Moreover, this judgment, that is to be so sweeping, is also very near at hand. In the old world the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah; but now he has waited long and sent messenger after messenger; and at last the time of delay is near]y exhausted, and the judgment is close at hand, for their iniquity is all but full. The day of the Lord is represented as hasting to meet them; the sound of its coming is already heard, and very soon it will be here. Have not all these lesser judgments been foretastes of it? the capture of Galilee by Tiglath-Pileser, the removal of the whole northern kingdom by Shalmaneser or Sargon, the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib? and has not each one of these been more sweeping and far reaching than the former? Are not these signs and harbingers of the great day of the Lord here announced? Then how terrible and irresistible is this judgment (vers. 15-18)! Physical strength and power shall not deliver the guilty nation. There are, indeed, fortified cities in the land, and high towers to bar the entrance of an enemy; and it may seem as if behind these they might defy the invader; but against them shall be raised the sound of the war trumpet, and the battle shout of a great host, before which they shall not be able to stand. Skill and wisdom shall not be able to save them. These have often enabled armies very much inferior in numbers to conquer great hosts; but now there shall be perplexity and dismay, and men shall be groping like blind men in the dark, unable to devise any means of resistance or escape, bewildered and disheartened. Wealth sometimes may be used to buy off an invading monarch or army. So in former days kings of Judah had repeatedly obtained relief from foreign foes by giving up to them the treasures of the palace and temple. But in this invasion neither silver nor gold shall be of any avail to deliver them. The prophet does not indicate more particularly from what quarter this terrible invasion shall come that is left to be made manifest by the event. For the terribleness of the judgment did not arise merely from the fact that it was to be inflicted by a great worldly power, which would be overpowering in force and would not care for bribes; but from this, that that power, whatever it might be, was to be the instrument of Jehovah"s wrath against the nation. Israel had often been saved from fierce attacks of mighty nations before, and enabled to defy their rage; but that had not been because of their wisdom or courage, but because they trusted in God, and had his protection. Now, however, there was coming on them the day of the Lord"s anger; he was to hide his face from them, and therefore it would be to them a day of such darkness, dismay, and despair. This brings us somewhat nearer the centre and heart of this prophecy, and leads us to consider
II THE CAUSES OF THE JUDGMENT, ANNOUNCED AS SO SWEEPING, NEAR, AND TERRIBLE. These are the sins of the land, of which a long and dark catalogue is unrolled (vers. 4-12). First comes what was the great besetting sin of ancient times, as it has ever been of men who possess not or will not receive God"s revelation of himself, idolatry, the worship of the seen and earthly as Divine, instead of the only true God who is invisible and spiritual, the worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator, The invisible things of God, his eternal power and Godhead, are seen and understood by the things that are made; for "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." But men, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, keep back this truth in unrighteousness, and come to regard the powers of nature as themselves Divine; and worship the heavens, the earth, the sun, the stars, as gods, instead of regarding them as the works of the true God, who is above them all. Thus they fall into a religion that is purely sensuous, requiring no elevation of the soul above what can be seen and heard and felt a religion also that is divorced from morality, for when men come to regard the processes of nature as the highest thing that there is, they can see in them no moral law or order. Such was the corrupt religion of the heathen world, left by God to its own way, and against this his revelation to Israel was designed to testify, declaring him to be a Being spiritual and holy, the one living and true God. But the chosen people were ever tempted to fall back to that sensuous and immoral conception of God that found expression in the idolatry of the surrounding nations. Various forms of such idolatry as was then common are here alluded to. There was the Phoenician worship of Baal, which had been introduced long ago by Jezebel into the northern kingdom, and through Athaliah into Judah; and there was also the more recently imported worship of the stars and heavenly bodies, the form of idolatry that prevailed in the Eastern countries with which Judah was now beginning to be acquainted. This worship was performed by burning incense and offering sacrifices on the flat tops of the houses, looking up to the sky and host of heaven. But along with these gross forms of idolatry there is also condemned the corrupt worship of Jehovah. The worship at the high places, with which the kohanim (ver. 4) were connected, was indeed a worship of Jehovah, but had become in course of time thoroughly idolatrous in its character; the pillars or groves placed beside the altars came to be worshipped as symbols of the Deity, and, as in Bethel and Dan, idols were identified with him. Thus the true invisible God was degraded to the likeness of the idols of the heathen, and this worship at the high places had to be utterly condemned and swept away. Another corruption of the pure worship of Jehovah was the combination of it with that of the heathen deities. There were those who worshipped and swore to Jehovah, and at the same time swore by Malcham (ver. 5) their king, i.e. Baal. They thought that they could preserve their allegiance to the God of Israel while yet they paid homage also to Baal. They would thus be halting between two opinions, or trying to make a compromise, which on any view of it must degrade the true God. It could only imply either that Jehovah and Baal were both real powers over their several nations, and so Jehovah would be merely a local or national deity; or else that they were but different names of the same supreme power, which would thus be made a mere nature power, such as Baal was conceived to be, not the holy God who had revealed himself to Israel. Then the prophet speaks (ver. 6) of what is implied in all this, and lies at the bottom of it all. These corrupt forms of worship were really a forsaking the Lord; and the beginning of the evil lay in ungodliness; they did not seek the Lord, nor inquire for him. Many who might not be guilty of any of the kinds of idolatry that prevailed, might yet be liable to this reproach, which is surely the severest of all. They professed that they knew God, but they did not look to him in their times of trouble, they did not seek to know his will from his Law or his prophets, they did not call on him for help in time of need he was to them, in fact, but a name or an idea, not a real, living, personal God. If this was all their religion, it was no wonder that they should be easily led to adopt some visible symbol of the Deity, or to cover up the hollowness of their profession by abundance of rites of worship, or to associate their belief in one Lord with the service of the deities of neighbouring countries, which seemed to be more realities to their devotees. Such were the corruptions of religion in Israel. With these were associated great social evils. Along with the foreign religious rites there were introduced also foreign customs, that marred the simplicity of the national character. This appeared most prominently in dress, which is here especially mentioned (ver. 8); but that was doubtless only an outward symptom of much more radical evils. According to the Law, Israel was to be distinguished from other nations by their dress as well as by their religion. Their characteristic dress was to be marked, on the one hand, by simplicity and decency, (Lev_19:19 Deu_22:11, Deu_22:12) and on the other hand, by having fringes as a memorial of Jehovah"s Law. (Num_15:38) But now they were growing ashamed of this outward mark of their religion, and came to adopt the more varied and splendid costume of their neighbours. This probably indicated in general habits of luxury and ostentation, which would naturally begin and be most prevalent among the princes and courtiers, though from them they would spread to other classes. Such selfish indulgence was especially to be condemned at a time when the nation was far from being in a secure or prosperous state. It had suffered serious losses, and barely escaped from imminent dangers; and even now the land was much impoverished compared with its former state, and the great empires around were becoming more powerful and threatening. Surely this was not a time to imitate foreign luxurious customs, and to be ashamed of the ancient and godly simplicity of Israel"s manners. Such luxury could only be maintained by the rich and the princes by means of oppression and extortion; and this is another evil described as the cause of the judgment (ver. 9). Those who leap on the threshold may refer, as some think, to the Philistines, who formed, with other foreigners, the royal bodyguard; or they may simply indicate, as others think, the eagerness with which the satellites of the princes intruded into the houses of the citizens, in order, by their oppressive exactions, to fill the houses of their masters. Anyhow, the verse indicates that, in order to keep up the splendour and luxury of the court, the people were oppressed, and exorbitant taxes or contributions levied from them by a system of fraudulent charges, or forcible domiciliary visitation. This is the natural accompaniment of a selfish oligarchy in an impoverished and declining state. Then, further, the merchant people in Jerusalem, who seem to have had as their place of business the valley between the hills of the old and new city, are as Canaanites in their transactions; the balances of deceit are in their hand; they have laden themselves with silver by usury and fraud. Such ill-gotten gains seem to be alluded to in ver. 11, and threatened with destruction when the enemy shall burst into the city by the fish gate at the northwest, its most exposed side; when the cry from it shall only be answered by a helpless howling from the new city and crashing from the higher parts, and the hollow valley where merchants most did congregate shall be, as it were, a mortar (Maktesh), in which they shall be trodden down and bruised to pieces by the invading host. At least there is described a prevailing avarice and hasting to be rich, as one of the causes on account of which this crushing judgment comes. Finally, we have set before us the careless self-indulgence of those who are at ease amid all this prevailing evil, who have had no changes, and have no fear of change, who say or think that neither good nor evil, blessing nor judgment, is to be looked for from God (ver. 12). All things continue as they were; and the thought of a present, living God, the Judge of the earth, and the Avenger of wrong, has faded from men"s minds. Such are the various forms of evil that are indicated by the prophet as the cause of the judgment which he announces. Can it be said that they are unknown in our day and in ourselves? No doubt the outward forms of idolatry and oppression then rampant are strange and repulsive to us; but are we free from the tendency to degrade the living God to a mere nature power, which is the essence of idolatry? And are not ungodliness, neglect of God"s spiritual worship, selfish ostentation and luxury, neglect and oppression of the poor, love of money, and careless self-indulgence, but too well known among us? The picture is not one of mere historical or antiquarian interest, but of ever present moral significance. It teaches us that such evils always lead to ruin, that they lay a nation helpless at the feet of its enemies, and make its continued existence impossible. All history confirms this lesson; and revelation bids us look beyond all merely historical catastrophes to that final judgment of the Lord which shall, in the fullest sense, be universal, embracing, not one nation only, but all mankind, and searching out each individual, to be confronted with his Judge and with the fruit of his own doings.
III THE LESSON OF ALL THIS IS EXPRESSED IN THE WORDS, "HOLD THY PEACE AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD." (Ver. 7) This is the first and most urgent duty. The prophet has further directions to give in following discourses; but this is the immediate effect that the announcement of judgment should have. A silence of awe and humility is what becomes men in the presence of God, when he rises up to judgment as the Lord of all the earth. "Be still, and know that I am God," is his voice as the day of the Lord approaches. This implies a recognition, on the one hand, of the reality, and on the other hand, of the justice, of God"s judgment. It should be received as a real expression of God"s wrath against the sins of men. Let not the evils that come upon nations or individuals in consequence of their sins be regarded as mere accidents, or as only due to the operation of natural laws. They may be brought about immediately by such second causes, but behind all these we are to recognize the mind and will of the living God. He speaks to us as truly by the ordinary courses of nature as by the most stupendous miracle, and if he shows us that earthly conceptions of the Divine degrade and brutalize man, that selfishness and selfish indulgence, luxury and oppression, bring a people to ruin and lay them helpless at the feet of their foes, that is a real and most solemn judgment of God against these things. Let us be silent also as recognizing the justice of this judgment. These things are evil, deserving of abhorrence and destruction; and God, who in his laws of nature appoints ruin to be their consequence, shows himself just and holy. Let us humbly acknowledge this; and in so far as these evils of ungodliness and selfishness have found place in us, let us put our hand on our mouth, acknowledging that we have nothing to answer to God, and are verily guilty in his sight. There is hope for us if we thus confess our sin. There is hope in the very fact that God announces his judgment against our sin. For what is the announcement? It is that God will utterly sweep away the evils that are done in the land; it is against those that the fire of his wrath is kindled; and if men will cling to these evils, and hug their sins to their bosom, he will sweep away the wicked with the stumbling blocks. Both together shall be destroyed, for God will be rid at last of sin. But if any are willing to be separated from their sins, by however humble and painful a process that may be, then the assurance that God will utterly sweep away the evil will have hope for them. The fire that is to devour the whole land is a fire of jealousy as well as of wrath. Because the Lord loves his people with a jealous affection, in spite of all their unfaithfulness, he will, if they but silently trust themselves to him, make the fire of his anger against their sin to purify and reflect them. Thus this coming of the Lord for judgment is the harbinger of final salvation to those who desire to be purged from those evils against which his wrath is revealed. Therefore "let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption; and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquity. C.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-6. The Word.
"The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amen, King of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast," etc. Of Zephaniah we have no information but what is contained in his prophecy. His genealogy is given in the first verse of this chapter. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, probably between the twelfth and eighteenth years of his reign. In the first chapter he predicts the utter desolation of Judah. In the second, he exhorts his countrymen to repentance in view of the approaching judgments, and threatens the surrounding nations, Philistia, Moab, and Ammon. In the third, after a severe rebuke of Jerusalem, he foretells, in glowing language, its future purification and enlargement, and the destruction of air its enemies. The style is distinguished neither by sublimity nor elegance. He resembles in many respects his contemporary, Jeremiah. He borrows some of the language of former prophets. (comp. Zep_2:14 with Isa_13:21 and Isa_34:11 Zep_2:15 Isa_47:8) "The genealogy of Zephaniah is given through Cushi, Gedaliah, and Amariah to Hezekiah; for in the original Hebrew the words "Hizkiah" and "Hezekiah" are the same. As it was unusual that the descent of prophets should be given with such particularity, it has been assumed with some probability that Hezekiah was the king of that name; though in this case we should have expected the addition, "King of Judah." The chemarim are the idol priests; that is, priests devoted to idol worship. In 2Ki_23:5, where the writer is speaking of the reformation under Josiah, the word is translated idolatrous priests; in Hos_10:5, simply priests, which is its meaning in the Syriac language. Some have maintained that the invasion of Judah to which Zephaniah refers was that of the Scythians described by Herodotus; but this is very improbable. From the fact that the king"s children are included in the threatened invasion in the Hebrew, "I will visit upon the princes and the king"s children some have inferred that they must have been already grown and addicted to idolatrous practices; consequently, that Zephaniah wrote later than the eighteenth year of Josiah. But, as Keil and others have remarked, the mention of the king"s children may have been added simply to indicate the universality of the approaching visitation; not to say that the prophetic vision of Zephaniah may have anticipated the sin and the punishment of these king"s children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim" (Barrows). In these verses we learn two things.
I THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD.
1. The distinguishing capacity of man. What is that? To receive the word of Jehovah. "The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi," etc. This Zephaniah, who from the fulness of his genealogy here given, was perhaps a person of note, was, however, mainly distinguished by this viz, that he received a word from Jehovah. What is it to receive a word from another? Not merely to hear it, to remember its sound, or to write it down, but to appreciate its meaning. This is the grand distinction of man as a mundane existence, it is not the reasoning principle that distinguishes man from other creatures on earth, for other creatures possess this in some degree; not the durability of his existence, for other creatures may live as long as he; but the capacity of taking in ideas from the Infinite Mind, to understand and realize God"s thoughts. In a sense, there is a greater distance between me as a man and the most intelligent animal on this earth, than there is between me and my Maker. The highest animal cannot take in and understand my thoughts; but I can take in and understand the thoughts of my Maker. "The word of the Lord" comes to every man at times comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart.
2. The wonderful condescension of God. How amazing the condescension of God to speak to man! Many of the pour little wretched creatures who are called emperors and empresses would, perhaps, not deign to speak to paupers, to hold converse with them; but the "Lord, though he be high, yet hath respect unto the humble; .... Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, To that man will I look who is of a contrite heart.
II THE MORAL CORRUPTION OF MAN, AND THE EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD.
1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses.
(1) Idolatry. "I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops." The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places. Baal was the Phoenician tutelary god. His name means lord; and the feminine god corresponding and generally associated with him was Ashtaroth. As he was represented by the sun, so she was the goddess answering to the moon and the rest of the heavenly host. In fact, it was the worship of nature; a worship to which corresponds the pantheistic and scientific exaltation of Nature and her laws in our own days, as if God were the slave of his own world and its laws, instead of the Lord, Creator, and Sustainer, who can and will modify, alter, and suspend the order of the present system of things, according to his own sovereign pleasure, and in furtherance of the higher moral laws, in subserviency to which the laws of nature exist. From the time of the judges (Jud_1:2:13) Israel had fallen into this idolatry; and Manasseh had lately set up this idol within Jehovah"s temple itself: (2Ki_21:3-7) "He reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove symbol of the goddess Ashtaroth... and worshipped all the host of heaven... And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my Name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he set a graven image of the grove the symbol of the heavenly host that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name forever." Josiah began his reformation in the twelfth year of his reign, (2Ch_34:3, 2Ch_34:4, 2Ch_34:8) and in the eighteenth had as far as possible completed it. "And the name of the Chemarims with the priests." These chemarim were in all probability subordinate ministers of the idolatrous priests, and their duty was to assist them at the altar. "Them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops." The houses in the East had flat roofs, open to the heavens, and there the worship was performed. Idolatry is one of the great sins of the world; it is confined to no age or laud. Its spirit is loving the creature more than the Creator.
(2) Backsliding. "Them that are turned back from the Lord." Indeed, idolatry is an apostasy, and so is all sin. All sin is a going back from the Lord. "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water". (Jer_2:13)
(3) Indifferentism. "And those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him." This is the most prevalent of all sins, and is one of the great roots of all immoralities an utter neglect of religion. Religious indifferentism is the great sin of England today. God and his claims are everywhere practically ignored. This indifferentism, like a vast pool of mud, generates all that is morally noxious, pernicious, and vile in our midst.
2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
(1) No one can really destroy but God. "I kill, and I make alive." Annihilation is as far behind the power of the creature as is the work of creation. Man may crush the forms of things, but the essences lie infinitely beyond his touch.
(2) God has a right to destroy human life. He has a right because it belongs to him. He has a right because through sin it has forfeited its existence.
(3) His destructive work is as beneficent as his sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature; one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 14, 17 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah.
Zep_1:1-6
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah.
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The Word
I. THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD.
1. The distinguishing capacity of man. To receive the word of Jehovah. To receive a word from another is to appreciate its meaning. The word of the Lord comes to every man at times,--comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart.
2. The wonderful condescension of God. Even to speak to man. The Lord hath respect unto the humble.
II. The moral corruption of man and the exclusive prerogative of God.
1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses.
(1) Idolatry. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops. The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places.
(2) Backsliding. Them that had turned back from the Lord. The other evil here is--
(3) Indifferentism. And those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him.
2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
(1) No one can really destroy but God. I kill and I make alive. Annihilation is as far behind the work of the creature as the work of creation.
(2) God has a right to destroy human life.
(3) His destructive work is as beneficent as His sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature: one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 Zephaniah 1-Zephaniah 2:3
THE PROPHET AND THE REFORMERS
Zephaniah 1-Zephaniah 2:3
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TOWARDS the year 625, when King Josiah had passed out of his minority, and was making his first efforts at religious reform, prophecy, long slumbering, woke again in Israel. Like the king himself, its first heralds were men in their early youth. In 627 Jeremiah calls himself but a boy, and Zephaniah can hardly have been out of his teens. For the sudden outbreak of these young lives there must have been a large reservoir of patience and hope gathered in the generation behind them. So Scripture itself testifies. To Jeremiah it was said: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I consecrated thee." {Jer_1:5} In an age when names were bestowed only because of their significance, both prophets bore that of Jehovah in their own. So did Jeremiahs father, who was of the priests of Anathoth. Zephaniahs "forbears" are given for four generations, and with one exception they also are called after Jehovah: "The Word of Jehovah which came to Sephanyah, son of Kushi, son of Gedhalyah, son of Amaryah, son of Hizkiyah, in the days of Joshiyahu, Amons son, king of Judah." Zephaniahs great-great-grandfather Hezekiah was in all probability the king. His fathers name Kushi, or Ethiop, is curious. If we are right, that Zephaniah was a young man towards 625, then Kushi must have been born towards 663, about the time of the conflicts between Assyria and Egypt, and it is possible that, as Manasseh and the predominant party in Judah so closely hung upon and imitated Assyria, the adherents of Jehovah put their hope in Egypt, whereof, it may be, this name Kushi is a token. The name Zephaniah itself, meaning "Jehovah hath hidden," suggests the prophets birth in the "killing-time" of Manasseh. There was at least one other contemporary of the same name-a priest executed by Nebuchadrezzar. Of the adherents of Jehovah, then, and probably of royal descent, Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem. We descry him against her, almost a clearly as we descry Isaiah. In the glare and smoke of the conflagration which his vision sweeps across the world, only her features stand out definite and particular: the flat roofs with men and women bowing in the twilight to the host of heaven, the crowds of priests, the nobles and their foreign fashions: the Fishgate, the New or Second Town, where the rich lived, the heights to which building had at last spread, and between them the hollow mortar, with its markets, Phoenician merchants, and money-dealers. In the first few verses of Zephaniah we see almost as much of Jerusalem as in the whole book either of Isaiah or Jeremiah.
For so young a man the vision of Zephaniah may seem strangely dark and final. Yet not otherwise was Isaiahs inaugural vision, and as a rule it is the young and not the old whose indignation is ardent and unsparing. Zephaniah carries this temper to the extreme. There is no great hope in his book, hardly any tenderness, and never a glimpse of beauty. A townsman, Zephaniah has no eye for nature; not only is no fair prospect described by him, he has not even a single metaphor drawn from natures loveliness or peace. He is pitilessly true to his great keynotes: "I will sweep, sweep from the face of the ground; He will burn," burn up everything. No hotter book lies in all the Old Testament. Neither dew nor grass nor tree nor any blossom lives in it, but it is everywhere fire, smoke, and darkness, drifting chaff, ruins, nettles, salt-pits, and owls and ravens looking from the windows of desolate palaces. Nor does Zephaniah foretell the restoration of nature in the end of the days. There is no prospect of a redeemed and fruitful land, but only of a group of battered and hardly saved characters: a few meek and righteous are hidden from the fire and creep forth when it is over. Israel is left "a poor and humble folk." No prophet is more true to the doctrine of the remnant, or more resolutely refuses to modify it. Perhaps he died young.
The full truth, however, is that Zephaniah, though he found his material in the events of his own day, tears himself loose from history altogether. To the earlier prophets the Day of the Lord, the crisis of the world, is a definite point in history: full of terrible, Divine events, yet "natural" ones - battle, siege, famine, massacre, and captivity. After it history is still to flow on, common days come back and Israel pursue their way as a nation. But to Zephaniah the Day of the Lord begins to assume what we call the "supernatural." The grim colors are still woven of war and siege, but mixed with vague and solemn terrors from another sphere, by which history appears to be swallowed up, and it is only with an effort that the prophet thinks of a rally of Israel beyond. In short, with Zephaniah the Day of the Lord tends to become the Last Day. His book is the first tinging of prophecy with apocalypse: that is the moment which it supplies in the history of Israels religion. And, therefore, it was with a true instinct that the great Christian singer of the Last Day took from Zephaniah his keynote. The "Dies Irae, Dies Illa" of Thomas of Celano is but the Vulgate translation of Zephaniahs "A day of wrath is that day."
Nevertheless, though the first of apocalyptic writers, Zephaniah does not allow himself the license of apocalypse. As he refuses to imagine great glory for the righteous, so he does not dwell on the terrors of the wicked. He is sober and restrained, a matter-of-fact man, yet with power of imagination, who, amidst the vague horrors he summons, delights in giving a sharp realistic impression. The Day of the Lord, he says, what is it? "A strong man-there!-crying bitterly."
It is to the fierce ardor, and to the elemental interests of the book, that we owe the absence of two features of prophecy which are so constant in the prophets of the eighth century. Firstly, Zephaniah betrays no interest in the practical reforms which (if we are right about the date) the young king, his contemporary, had already started. There was a party of reform, the party had a program, the program was drawn from the main principles of prophecy and was designed to put these into practice. And Zephaniah was a prophet and ignored them. This forms the dramatic interest of his book. Here was a man of the same faith which kings, priests, and statesmen were trying to realize in public life, in the assured hope-as is plain from the temper of Deuteronomy-that the nation as a whole would be reformed and become a very great nation, righteous and victorious. All this he ignored, and gave his own vision of the future: Israel is a brand plucked from the burning; a very few meek and righteous are saved from the conflagration of a whole world. Why? Because for Zephaniah the elements were loose, and when the elements were loose what was the use of talking about reforms? The Scythians were sweeping down upon Palestine, with enough of Gods wrath in them to destroy a people still so full of idolatry as Israel was; and if not the Scythians, then some other power in that dark, rumbling North which had ever been so full of doom. Let Josiah try to reform Israel, but it was neither Josiahs nor Israels day that was falling. It was the Day of the Lord, and when He came it was neither to reform nor to build up Israel, but to make visitation and to punish in His wrath for the unbelief and wickedness of which the nation was still full.
An analogy to this dramatic opposition between prophet and reformer may be found in our own century. At its crisis, in 1848, there were many righteous men rich in hope and energy. The political institutions of Europe were being rebuilt. In our own land there were great measures for the relief of laboring children and women, the organization of labor, and the just distribution of wealth. But Carlyle that year held apart from them all, and, though a personal friend of many of the reformers, counted their work hopeless: society was too corrupt, the rudest forces were loose, "Niagara" was near. Carlyle was proved wrong and the reformers right, but in the analogous situation of Israel the reformers were wrong and the prophet right. Josiahs hope and daring were overthrown at Megiddo, and, though the Scythians passed away, Zephaniahs conviction of the sin and doom of Israel was fulfilled, not forty years later, in the fall of Jerusalem and the great Exile. Again, to the same elemental interests, as we may call them, is due the absence from Zephaniahs pages of all the social and individual studies which form the charm of other prophets. With one exception, there is no analysis of character, no portrait, no satire. But the exception is worth dwelling upon: it describes the temper equally abhorred by both prophet and reformer-that of the indifferent and stagnant man. Here we have a subtle and memorable picture of character, which is not without its warnings for our own time.
Zephaniah heard God say: "And it shall be at that time that I will search out Jerusalem with lights, and I will make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who say in their hearts, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil." The metaphor is clear. New wine was left upon its lees only long enough to fix its color and body. If not then drawn off it grew thick and syrupy-sweeter indeed than the strained wine, and to the taste of some more pleasant, but feeble and ready to decay. "To settle upon ones lees" became a proverb for sloth, indifference, and the muddy mind. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth and hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; therefore his taste stands in him and his scent is not changed." {Jer_48:11} The characters stigmatized by Zephaniah are also obvious. They were a precipitate from the ferment of fifteen years back. Through the cruel days of Manasseh and Amon hope had been stirred and strained, emptied from vessel to vessel, and so had sprung, sparkling and keen, into the new days of Josiah. But no miracle came, only ten years of waiting for the kings majority and five more of small, tentative reforms. Nothing Divine happened. They were but the ambiguous successes of a small party who had secured the king for their principles. The court was still full of foreign fashions, and idolatry was rank upon the housetops. Of course disappointment ensued-disappointment and listlessness. The new security of life became a temptation; persecution ceased, and religious men lived again at ease. So numbers of eager and sparkling souls, who had been in the front of the movement, fell away into a selfish and idle obscurity.
The prophet hears God say, "I must search Jerusalem with lights" in order to find them. They had "fallen from the van and the freemen"; they had "sunk to the rear and the slaves," where they wallowed in the excuse that "Jehovah" Himself "would do nothing-neither good," therefore it is useless to attempt reform like Josiah and his party, "nor evil," therefore Zephaniahs prophecy of destruction is also vain. Exactly the same temper was encountered by Mazzini in the second stage of his career. Many of those who with him had eagerly dreamt of a free Italy fell away when the first revolt failed-fell away not merely into weariness and fear, but, as he emphasizes, into the very two tempers which are described by Zephaniah, skepticism and self-indulgence.
All this starts questions for ourselves. Here is evidently the same public temper, which at all periods provokes alike the despair of the reformer and the indignation of the prophet: the criminal apathy of the well-to-do classes sunk in ease and religious indifference. We have today the same mass of obscure, nameless persons, who oppose their almost unconquerable inertia to every movement of reform, and are the drag upon all vital and progressive religion. The great causes of God and Humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults of the Devil, but by the slow, crushing, glacier-like masses of thousands and thousands of indifferent nobodies. Gods causes are never destroyed by being blown up, but by being sat upon. It is not the violent and anarchical whom we have to fear in the war for human progress, but the slow, the staid, the respectable. And the danger of these does not lie in their stupidity. Notwithstanding all their religious profession, it lies in their real skepticism. Respectability may be the precipitate of unbelief. Nay, it is that, however religious its mask, wherever it is mere comfort, decorousness, and conventionality; where, though it would abhor articulately confessing that God does nothing, it virtually means so- says so (as Zephaniah puts it) in its heart, by refusing to share manifest opportunities of serving Him, and covers its sloth and its fear by sneering that God is not with the great crusades of freedom and purity to which it is summoned. In these ways, respectability is the precipitate which unbelief naturally forms in the selfish ease and stillness of so much of our middle-class life. And that is what makes mere respectability so dangerous. Like the unshaken, unstrained wine to which the prophet compares its obscure and muddy comfort, it tends to decay. To some extent our respectable classes are just the dregs and lees of our national life; like all dregs, they are subject to corruption. A great sermon could be preached on the putrescence of respectability-how the ignoble comfort of our respectable classes and their indifference to holy causes lead to sensuality, and poison the very institutions of the home and the family, on which they pride themselves. A large amount of the licentiousness of the present day is not that of outlaw and disordered lives, but is bred from the settled ease and indifference of many of our middle-class families.
It is perhaps the chief part of the sin of the obscure units, which form these great masses of indifference, that they think they escape notice and cover their individual responsibility. At all times many have sought obscurity, not because they are humble, but because they are slothful, cowardly, or indifferent. Obviously it is this temper which is met by the words, "I will search out Jerusalem with lights." None of us shall escape because we have said, "I will go with the crowd," or "I am a common man and have no right to thrust myself forward." We shall be followed and judged, each of us for his or her personal attitude to the great movements of our time. These things are not too high for us: they are our duty; and we cannot escape our duty by slinking into the shadow.
For all this wickedness and indifference Zephaniah sees prepared the Day of the Lord-near, hastening, and very terrible. It sweeps at first in vague desolation and ruin of all things, but then takes the outlines of a solemn slaughter-feast for which Jehovah has consecrated the guests, the dim unnamed armies from the north. Judah shall be invaded, and they that are at ease, who say "Jehovah does nothing" shall be unsettled and routed. One vivid trait comes in like a screech upon the hearts of a people unaccustomed for years to war. "Hark, Jehovahs Day!" cries the prophet. "A strong man-there!-crying bitterly." From this flash upon the concrete he returns to a great vague terror, in which earthly armies merge in heavenly; battle, siege, storm, and darkness are mingled, and destruction is spread abroad upon the whole earth. The first shades of Apocalypse are upon us.
We may now take the full text of this strong and significant prophecy. We have already given the title. Textual emendations and other points are explained in footnotes.
"I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the ground oracle of Jehovah-sweep man and beast, sweep the fowl of the heaven and the fish of the sea, and I will bring to ruin the wicked and cut off the men of wickedness from the ground- oracle of Jehovah. And I will stretch forth My hand upon Judah; and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will cut off from this place the remnant of the Baal, the names of the priestlings with the priests, and them who upon the housetops bow themselves to the host of heaven, and them who swear by their Melech, and them who have turned from following Jehovah, and who do not seek Jehovah nor have inquired of Him."
"Silence for the Lord Jehovah! For near is Jehovahs Day. Jehovah has prepared a slaughter, He has consecrated His guests."
"And it shall be in Jehovahs day of slaughter that I will make visitation upon the princes and the house of the king, and upon all who array themselves in foreign raiment; and I will make visitation upon all who leap over the threshold on that day, who fill their lords house full of violence and fraud. "And on that day oracle of Jehovah-there shall be a noise of crying from the Fishgate, and wailing from the Mishneh, and great havoc on the Heights. Howl, O dwellers in the Mortar, for undone are all the merchant folk, cut off are all the money-dealers. "And in that time it shall be, that I will search Jerusalem with lanterns, and make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who in their hearts say, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil. Their substance shall be for spoil, and their houses for wasting "Near is the great Day of Jehovah, near and very speedy. Hark, the Day of Jehovah! A strong man-there!-crying bitterly A Day of wrath is that Day! Day of siege and blockade, day of stress and distress, day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist, day of the war-horn and battle-roar, up against the fenced cities and against the highest turrets! And I will beleaguer men, and they shall walk like the blind, for they have sinned against Jehovah; and poured out shall their blood be like dust, and the flesh of them like dung. Even their silver, even their gold shall "not avail to save them in the day of Jehovahs wrath, and in the fire of His zeal shall all the earth be devoured, for destruction, yea, sudden collapse shall He make of all the, inhabitants of the earth."
Upon this vision of absolute doom there follows a qualification for the few meek and righteous. They may be hidden on the day of the Lords anger; but even for them escape is only a possibility Note the absence of all mention of the Divine mercy as the cause of deliverance. Zephaniah has no gospel of that kind. The conditions of escape are sternly ethical-meekness, the doing of justice and righteousness. So austere is our prophet.
"O people unabashed! before that ye become as the drifting chaff before the anger of Jehovah come upon you, before there come upon you the day of Jehovahs wrath; seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance, seek righteousness, seek meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovahs wrath."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 7, 10 Zep_1:2. Consume] From root; to destroy, utterly to sweep…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zep_1:2. Consume] From root; to destroy, utterly to sweep away (cf. Jer_8:13) everything (Zep_1:3). “The enumeration of particulars is designed to augment the fearful and universal character of the punishment” [Henderson]. Causes, idols, which made them offend or stumble (Eze_14:3-4; Eze_14:7).
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HOMILETICS
THE DESTRUCTIVE JUDGMENTS.—Zep_1:2-3
The people had been formerly warned, but heeded not; now threatenings are executed. Destruction, like another deluge, is to sweep the whole earth.
I. The universality of the judgments. The judgment of Judah is preceded by one upon all nations. The prophet was not of a selfish and bigoted spirit. He concerned himself with the fate of heathen countries, and proved that the destiny of the world was linked with that of the chosen people. As the result of judgment, nations will be converted to God (ch. Zep_3:9), and the world renewed and glorified.
II. The severity of the judgments. Everything is specified and paired, like the threat of old (Gen_6:7). The calamity will be as terrible as the flood.
1. Inferior creatures destroyed. “The fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea.”
2. Human beings destroyed. “I will consume men.” Man is the lord, not the helpless victim, of nature. All things are put under his feet, suffer for his guilt, and share his fate. “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea.” Dumb brutes cry out against human guilt. We should learn God’s displeasure against sin when we see innocent creatures suffer for it.
III. The design of the judgments. Joel (Joe_2:12-14) and Zephaniah were deeply convinced that all sorrows and calamities were disciplinary—that judgments were mixed with mercy, and designed to purify human life. God afflicts men to restore their souls. The wicked are swept away, and their offences with them. Sad when life itself must be taken away to cleanse it from corruption and guilt. But nations have thus been purified from idolatry and oppression, and thus will it be at the last day, when the Son of Man “shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zep_1:1. The prophet’s employment. To declare God’s word, reprove sin, and reform society.
2. The prophet’s authority. The word came directly from God. His doctrine not devised by men, but received by inspiration.
3. The prophet’s age. “In the days of Josiah, king of Judah.” In times of general defection, God’s mercy is so great, that means are multiplied to reclaim men from sin. “Not many noble,” but some are called to this work. Here we have a king, and the son of a king, engaged in the service of God.
Zep_1:2. I will utterly consume. A tragical beginning of a terrible sermon. Hard knots must have hard wedges; hard hearts, heavy menaces. The doubling of the denunciation, collingendo colligam, importeth the certainty, verity, and vehemency thereof [Trapp].
Zep_1:2-3. “The besom of destruction” (Isa_14:23) and the terrible sweep it makes; man and beast. Corruption and destruction, or the indissoluble link.
Zep_1:3. Wicked with their offences. Wickedness, corrupting the earth—entailing suffering on the brute creation—necessitating Divine interference, and displaying Divine love. “I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled” (Jer_4:25; cf. Jer_12:4). “As God’s acts of deliverance are connected in time with his acts of judgment (since his judgments are ever separations of the godly from the ungodly, and in this sense, salvations and deliverances), so also are the revelations of judgment at the same time revelations of deliverance, and the faith of the elect, which corresponds to them, is, at the same time, both a faith in judgment and a faith in salvation” [Lange].
“O God! thy arm was here,
And not to us, but to thy arm alone
Ascribe we all” [Shakspeare].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Zep_1:1-3. Consume. The wrath of God is truly the terriblest thing in this world—the sting of sin, which is the sting of death. Alas! to us, God’s wrath doth not appear in its full horror; for if it did, we should sooner die than offend him. Some do but think of it; few think of it as they should; and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at a distance, as that which may be turned away; and so, not fearing God’s wrath, “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath” [Farindon].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The metaphor of the text appears to be drawn…
Zep 1:12
The metaphor of the text appears to be drawn from that of a man who, having cause for suspicion, searches over every part of his house, and goes down to the very foundation; and because some places are very dark there, he takes with him candles—and, making the light pass carefully over every spot, he scrutinizes for that which he endeavours to discover.
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I. It seems evident that the Holy Spirit is mainly intended by the candle of the Lord; not only because God speaks of the Spirit under this image (Job 29:2-4), but more particularly because the Church is compared to the candlestick. Christ, who is present in the Church by the Holy Ghost, is that Light which the candlestick, however precious, is worthless if it do not hold. The Holy Ghost is the grand Revealer by which God lays open all the secret places of a man’s heart, and from whom all other means whatever gain their efficacy.
II. Subject, however, to this great light, and altogether dependent upon it, there comes next the ministry of God’s Word in preaching. That the blessed effect of God’s Word to probe the conscience and uncover a man belongs, in an eminent degree, to the public minister of the Word, is certain from 1. Cor. xiv., where St. Paul says: "But if all prophesy [i.e. ’preach’], and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all"—not all men, but by every word that is spoken; "he is judged of all," every word condemns him, and observe the consequence—"and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest."
III. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." This undoubtedly means a man’s conscience when the Lord has enlightened that conscience by His Spirit, and thereby fitted it to act that great part of laying bare the hidden, inner life.
IV. Observe, when God rises up to search where the light falls the angriest. It is not on the profane; it is not on the vicious; it is not on the world,—they have their condemnation; but the first inquiry of our heart-searching God is this: "Who are they that have quenched their grace?"
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 47.
I. If we examine a little closely we shall be forced to admit, that there is a direct tendency in prosperity to the fostering and strengthening the corruptions of our nature. The more, for example, a man obtains of wealth or of power, the more, ordinarily, will he desire; so that attachment to earthly things grows with their acquirement; and if it is not impossible, it is very rare and difficult to have the affections fixed on things above whilst the hands are uninterruptedly busied with sweeping together perishable riches. The bent of our dispositions being towards the earth, if nothing ever happen to turn them from earth, there is little ground for expecting that they will centre themselves on heaven.
II. Consider the beneficial results of change and calamity. Change admonishes us of the transitory nature of terrestrial good. Exactly in proportion as calamity is deferred, confidence is strengthened; and if evil be slow in coming, men easily persuade themselves that it will never come at all. If, for many years, there have been no eruption of the volcano from whose outbreak the peasantry had fled with every demonstration of terror, the cottages will again be built around the treacherous mountain, and the smiling gardens clustered on its sides; but if the cottages were swept away year after year by fresh descents of the fiery flood, we may be sure that the peasantry however attached to the place, would finally abandon it altogether, and seek a home in some more secure, though perhaps less lovely, scene. And certainly every change, and yet more a succession of changes, speaks to an individual in the same words as would thus tell on a disturbed, disquieted peasantry: "Arise ye, and depart hence, for this is hot your rest."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,138.
References: Zep 1:12.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 171; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 6. Zep 1:17.—Ibid., 2nd series, p. 12. Zep 2:3.—J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 371; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 357. Zep 3:2.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1,580; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 360; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 172. Zep 3:8-10.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 213. Zep 3:9.—J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 375: J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 302. Zep 3:11, Zep 3:12.—Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. x., p. 248. Zep 3:12.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 365; S. Cox, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., pp. 393, 457, 529, 592, 655, 719. Zep 3:13.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 173. Zep 3:17.—Ibid., p. 173; J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 45.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Day of Jehovah a Day of Judgment for…
The Day of Jehovah a Day of Judgment for guilty Judah
The prophecy opens with the declaration of universal destruction for all living things. In his way the prophet impresses upon his hearers the completeness and appalling nature of the impending judgment. In the succeeding vv. he defines in detail the character of the punishment and the guilty classes in Judah upon which it will especially fall. It is in keeping with the genius of the Semitic mind thus to pass from the general to the specific. The Hebrews, for example, began with God and then turned to note the evidence of His work in history and nature; while the Aryan mind first gathered the evidence from life and a study of the universe, and then from these ultimately rose to the conception of a deity.
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3. Stumblingblocks] or, slightly correcting the text to bring it into harmony with the rest of the v., 'I will destroy the wicked.'
4. I will also stretch out mine hand] cp. the similar powerful refrain in Isa_5:25; Isa_9:12, Isa_9:17, Isa_9:21. All traces of Baalism, together with the 'Chemarim' (RV), the black-robed priests of Baal are first to be destroyed, as well as the wicked priests of Jehovah, who degraded His worship.
5, 6. The sweeping judgment and reformation will also affect those who follow the example of their Assyrian masters and worship the stars upon the housetops (cp. 2Ki_23:5, 2Ki_23:12; Eze_8:16), those who bow down before the moon (Heb. Jehovah, but cp. Jer_8:2; Deu_17:3, and the parallelism), those who swear fealty to the Ammonite god, Milcom, and all those apostates who have ceased to worship Jehovah.
7. Jehovah's Day is here conceived of as a day of judgment, as in Amo_5:18, and is likened to a great sacrificial feast: cp. 1Sa_9:13, and the guests are Judah's enemies: cp. for the same figure of speech, Isa_13:3.
8. The chief crime of the princes in the prophet's eyes is the introduction of foreign customs: see Isa_2:6-8.
9. Leap on the threshold] Evidently here also the crime is that of the members of the court, perhaps a foreign religious custom: cp. 1Sa_5:5. But as there is no reference to religious customs in the context, the words may simply refer to the retainers of the king, who were in constant attendance at his doors, and who used their influence to enrich themselves at the cost of others. Fill their masters' houses (Heb. 'house') with violence and deceit] i.e. by their acts of oppression and injustice.
10. The reference is to the advance of the enemy against Jerusalem from the N. The fish gate was at the northern end of the Tyropœan valley (cp. Neh_3:3; Neh_12:39), and opened into the second or new quarter: cp. 2Ki_22:14 RV.
11. Maktesh] or, 'the mortar': the local designation of the merchants' quarter, which probably lay in the Tyropœan valley, W. of the Temple area.
12. Search.. with candles] i.e. thoroughly, as was required in the poorly-lighted houses of Palestine: cp, Luk_15:8. Settled on their lees] i.e. have received no infusion of new and noble teachings, but retain the old fallacies: cp. Jer_48:11, Jer_48:12.
13. Cp. Amo_5:11; Mic_6:15.
14, 15. Jehovah's judgment day is compared with a fierce tempest rapidly advancing toward Judah. The figure was suggested by the swift approach of the hordes of Scythian invaders.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 11 i.e. idolatrous priests. Cf. 2Ki 23:5.
Chemarims
i.e. idolatrous priests. Cf. 2Ki 23:5.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Analysis and Annotations
Analysis and Annotations
CHAPTER 1
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The Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment
1. The judgment of all the world (Zep 1:1-3)
2. The judgment will destroy the evildoers in Judah (Zep 1:4-13)
3. The day of the Lord (Zep 1:14-18)
Zep 1:1-3. The first verse is the superscription, and tells us, as pointed out in the introduction, of the connection of Zephaniah and the date of his prophecy.
Then comes the announcement of the judgment. It is to consume all things from off the face of the land, man and beast, the fowls of heaven, the fishes of the sea, and end the stumbling blocks of the wicked, that is, their idols and idol worship. The land is not to be understood as being Israel’s land exclusively; it means the earth. That the judgment vision of Zephaniah has a wider scope than the land and the people is fully confirmed by other passages. The great day comes upon men everywhere (Zep 1:17); it is universal (Zep 2:4-15); all the isles of the nations are mentioned (Zep 2:11).
Zep 1:4-13. It will fall especially upon the house of Judah and Jerusalem. In the verses which follow we have a description of the moral conditions of the Jews when Josiah started his reformation, which prophetically gives us a picture of the conditions among the Jews when this age closes, and a portion of them is back in the land of their fathers, as they are attempting to get it back now through political Zionism.
The hand of the Lord will be stretched out upon Judah and Jerusalem. The remnant of Baal will be cut off and the Chemarim, with the priests. Idolatry, whatever remains of it, should then be completely abolished. “Baal” was the idol of god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites; the word means “lord” or “possessor.” With the worship of this god licentious practices were connected. Chemarim is the name of the idolatrous priests which conducted the high places, appointed for this service by the kings of Judah 2Ki 23:5. In Zep 1:5 and Zep 1:6 other forms of idolatry are mentioned. They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars, and studied their movements as if they could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practiced among civilized nations today, is an old cult 2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 21:5; Jer 8:22; Jer 19:13. Others used the Holy Name of Jehovah, and at the same time they used the name of Malcham. All was a turning back from Jehovah and dishonoring His Name.
As to the future curse of idolatry among the Jews, the passage in Mat 12:43; Mat 12:45, the words of our Lord, gives us the full information. The unclean spirit there is the spirit of idolatry, from which the Jews in their dispersion are free; the unclean spirit has left the house, but it is to return, and the last state is worse than the first: “Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” They will worship the man of sin, the masterpiece of Satan, who in the end of the age will take his place in the temple of God 2Th 2:1-17.
The day of the Lord is at hand; a statement which verifies our interpretation that this prophecy refers to the future day. The Lord has prepared His sacrifice and bidden his guests. It is the supper of the great God, to which He invites His guests. Read in connection with this Rev 19:17-18. What that day will bring is described in Zep 1:8-13. All the evil doers will be dealt with by the Lord.
Zep 1:14-18. The great day of the Lord is now more fully described. It is the day when the announced judgment will take place. Higher criticism sees nothing but some invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the culmination of the past ages, when Jehovah is revealed, so vividly described in Joe 2:11. On that day the voice of the Lord will be heard Psa 29:1-11; Isa 66:6. When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness, for he is unable to save himself from the judgment tempest. In two verses the prophet describes vividly the greatness of that day.
A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of ruin and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and cloudy darkness; A day of the trumpet and the war cry Against the fortified cities, And against the lofty battlements.
Thomas of Celano used in 1250 the Vulgate translation of the first sentence “Dies irae, dies illa” in writing his famous judgment hymn. It is well to compare Scripture with Scripture about that day. (For instance Zep 1:15 with Joe 3:1-21; Amo 5:18; Amo 5:20; Amo 8:9; Isa 13:10, and many other passages.) When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be upon all. They will walk like blind men, that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day, neither silver nor gold will avail anything.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 11 The Nature of the Judgment
The Nature of the Judgment
v. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, being communicated to him by special revelation of the Lord, the prophet tracing his genealogy as follows. the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, four representative members from his ancestry being given, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, who made the last consistent effort to bring about a reformation of the people.
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v. 2. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord, sweeping it off the face of the earth in an utter devastation.
v. 3. I will consume man and beast, even the creatures being affected by the universality of the judgment; I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, that is, whatever men have offended and transgressed with together with the objects of their idolatry; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord, certainly destroying them off the face of the earth, in a last great destruction.
v. 4. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, the particular object of His wrath, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the people of the land followed the inhabitants of the capital in their transgressions; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, for there were still such as adhered to his idolatrous worship, and the name of the Chemarim, the idol-priests, those engaged in the worship of Baal, with the priests, for these also had polluted themselves and were therefore destined for destruction,
v. 5. and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, regarding sun, moon, and Stars as their gods; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham, by their king, so that they tried to combine the service of the true God and that of Baal, solemnly pledging themselves to the latter’s service,
v. 6. and them that are turned back from the Lord, drawing back from Jehovah, and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for Him, both the openly wicked and the irreligious being included in the list of Jehovah’s enemies.
v. 7. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God! ready to submit to His judgment as outlined above; for the day of the Lord is at hand, when His punishment must strike the transgressors; for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, the Jewish nation itself, He hath bid His guests, namely, the world-powers and their allies, all ready to devour Judah.
v. 8. And it shall came to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, when His punishment is put into effect, that I will punish the princes, the mighty ones, the dignitaries of state, and the king’s children, all those belonging to the royal family, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel, their dress showing that they were estranged from the national spirit and customs.
v. 9. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, namely, that of the temple of Dagon, the idol of the Philistines, 1Sa 5:5, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit, bringing their money and their treasures, unjustly acquired as they are, into the houses of their idols.
v. 10. And It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry, of a woeful shout, from the fish-gate, that through which the road to Joppa passed, and an howling from the second, from the lower city, where the attack of the enemy would be launched, and a great crashing from the hills, those extending upward from the lower city. The Lord set out to punish, and His judgment was thorough, as it always is in the case of such as refuse to heed His words of warning.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17 General Information:
General Information:
Verses Zep 1:2-18 refer to Yahweh's judgment. Verses Zep 1:2-3 describe Yahweh's final judgment of every sinner in the future.
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the word of Yahweh that came
This idiom is used to introduce a special message from God. AT: "Yahweh gave a message" or "Yahweh spoke this message" (See: Idiom)
Yahweh
This is the name of God that he revealed to his people in the Old Testament. See the translationWord page about Yahweh concerning how to translate this.
son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah
This is a list of Zephaniah's ancestors. These usages of "son of" are the broader sense of "descendant of." Here "Hezekiah" refers to King Hezekiah. These things can be made explicit. AT: "the grandson of Gedaliah, and the great-grandson of Amariah, whose father was King Hezekiah" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
I will utterly destroy everything from off the surface of the earth ... I will cut off man from the surface of the earth
The words "everything" and "will cut off man" are deliberate exaggerations by Yahweh to express his anger at the people's sin. Yahweh will destroy neither sinners who repent nor all living things nor. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
destroy everything from off the surface of the earth
"destroy everything that is on the entire earth"
this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
man and beast
"people and animals"
the ruins
Possible meanings are 1) the piles of rubble that will remain after the judgment or 2) the idols that Yahweh destroyed.
cut off
Destroying is spoken of as if it were cutting something off from what it was a part of. AT: "destroy" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
Yahweh
Zephaniah
Hezekiah
Josiah
king
Judah
heaven
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 1:1–2:3 Zephaniah’s message from the Lord warns about worldwide…
1:1–2:3 Zephaniah’s message from the Lord warns about worldwide judgment (1:1-6) and exhorts his readers to repent (1:7-13) before the devastation overtakes them (1:14-18) and to seek the Lord and live righteously and humbly before him in the hope that they may be spared his judgment (2:1-3).
1:1 The Lord gave this message: Zephaniah was a prophet, God’s spokesman. • Hezekiah probably indicates the king of that name (see 2 Kgs 18:1–20:20).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.