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, Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 52:24; Zechariah 6:10. _the son of Hizkiah_ Hizkiah or Hezekiah may be the king of that name. It is unusual to carry th... [ Continue Reading ]
Zephaniah 1:2-7. The Universal Judgment of the Day of the Lord 2. _from off the land_ FROM OFF THE FACE OF THE GROUND, i.e. the earth, cf. Zephaniah 1:3. The judgment is indiscriminate, all that lives shall be swept away. Though it is men against whom God's anger burns, the anger once kindled devou... [ Continue Reading ]
Zephaniah 1:3 particularises the "all things" of Zephaniah 1:2, cattle and fowl and fishes of the sea, and man. Hosea 4:3, "Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea the fishes of the sea also shall be... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet turns to Judah and Jerusalem. Though the Day of the Lord was the revelation of Jehovah to the world, and therefore a thing universal, the centre of the judgment in the view of the pre-exile prophets was Israel (Amos 1:2; Isaiah 2:3), for judgment began at the house of God (Amos 3:2). Wit... [ Continue Reading ]
Besides the priests who lead the false worship, the various classes of worshippers shall be swept away: (1) those that worship the host of heaven on the house-tops; (2) those who unite Jehovah and other gods in their worship; and (3) those who have renounced the service of Jehovah, or who do not con... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse also one class of persons is described in two ways: those who have turned away from Jehovah and who do not seek Him. Comp. the prophet's exhortation ch. Zephaniah 2:2, "seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hold thy peace … Lord God_ lit. _the Lord Jehovah_. The divine name Jehovah was not pronounced in the synagogue reading, the word Lord (A.V. in that case Lord) being substituted for it; but when the actual word Lord (_Adonai_) stood beside Jehovah then the reader substituted God (A.V. God) for Jeho... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will punish the princes_ lit. _visit upon_the princes. The princes are the nobles, particularly those entrusted with judicial and similar offices. _the king's children_ The children of the king are the royal house in general, hardly Josiah's own sons, who in the eighteenth year of his reign were... [ Continue Reading ]
The classes in Jerusalem on which the judgment will fall The errors and sins assailed by Zephaniah are the same as those attacked by earlier prophets, e.g. (1) the false worship, Zephaniah 1:4, cf. Amos 4:4 ff.; Isaiah 1:11 ff.; (2) the civil wrong and injustice, Zephaniah 1:9, cf. Amos 5:7; Amos 5... [ Continue Reading ]
_those that leap on the threshold_ Rather: LEAP (or, spring) OVER the threshold. The priests of Dagon avoided treading on the threshold of his temple because the idol had fallen upon it (1 Samuel 5:5). The connexion here, however, implies that leaping over the threshold is rather an act of violence,... [ Continue Reading ]
_the fish gate_ The gate may have received its name from its vicinity to the fishmarket. From Nehemiah 3:1-3 it appears that the fishgate lay to the west of the tower of Hananeel; and in Nehemiah 12:39 the procession starting from the south-west of the city and going round the walls north and east p... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye inhabitants of Maktesh_ The term _Maktesh_is rendered "hollow-place," Judges 15:19, and _mortar_, Proverbs 27:22. Some depression or valley in the city is referred to: Hitzig thinks of that between Acra and the Temple area, and others of the valley of the Tyropœon or cheese-makers, a depression,... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will search Jerusalem with candles_ lit. _with lamps_, or, _lanterns_, Luke 15:8. The darkest places shall be penetrated and those lurking in them discovered. Jehovah searches, though it may be by the hand of the enemy that He performs the search. It is out of these obscurist places that the men... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse implies that the "search" (Zephaniah 1:12) is made by the foe under commission of the Lord; the foe is in quest of spoil, but his acts are the Lord's "visitation" on the unbelieving. _They shall also build houses_ AND THEY SHALL BUILD HOUSES, BUT NOT INHABIT THEM. The phrase is a common on... [ Continue Reading ]
_The great day of the Lord_is _near_ The day is called "great and terrible," Joel 2:31; Malachi 4:5, and is always represented as near, Isaiah 13:6; Joel 2:1; Joel 2:11 (see notes on Zephaniah 1:7). Even _the voice of the day_ Rather as an exclamation: HARK! THE DAY OF THE LORD! or, THE SOUND OF TH... [ Continue Reading ]
The terrors of the Day of the Lord The day of the Lord is described as a day of battle and assault upon the fenced cities, but also as a day of darkness and supernatural terrors. In Arabic the term "day" often means "battle-day," as the "day of Bedr," and this may have been its original application... [ Continue Reading ]
_a day of wrath_ i.e. of the outpouring of the wrath of God. The effects of this wrath are then detailed: (1) trouble and distress; (2) wasteness and desolation; (3) darkness and gloominess, clouds and thick darkness. The combination "trouble and distress" is found again Job 15:24; cf. Isaiah 30:6;... [ Continue Reading ]
Besides the supernatural terrors of the judgment there is the hostile assault which the supernatural terrors accompany. _A day of the trumpet and alarm_ The "trumpet" was blown amidst the attack (Judges 7:19), as now martial music accompanies the advance. Amos 2:2, "Moab shall die with tumult, with... [ Continue Reading ]
The distress, though at first outward, leads to inward perplexity, when men can find no outlet or way, and grope like the blind. The comparison is a frequent one to express perplexity and helplessness: Deuteronomy 28:29 "thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness;" Isaiah 59:10. H... [ Continue Reading ]
The idea of the verse is illustrated in Proverbs 11:4, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death," cf. Ezekiel 7:19. The instruments also whom Jehovah employs to execute His judgments are sometimes animated by a loftiness of purpose and mind that despises mere e... [ Continue Reading ]