Zephaniah 1:17

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. Here the perplexity is secondary, due to the paralysing calamities of the judgment; but in other cases by moral laws that operate invisibly moral confusion and perplexity invade the mind through sin. On the last part of the verse comp. Psalms 79:3; Psalms 83:10; Jeremiah 9:22; Jeremiah 16:4. The word translated flesh(again only Job 20:23) has been rendered by others, inwards, bowels(Frd. Delitzsch, Prolegomena, p. 193), but this sense is less probable.