Zephaniah 3:19

I will undo all that afflict thee As R.V., I will deal with all.

I will save her that halteth The people are spoken of under the metaphor of a flock, in which are some that are lame, and to which belong some that have been driven away. Hence the use of the fem.gender. Comp. Ezekiel 34:16, "I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back again that which was driven away." Micah 4:6-7.

I will get them praise As R.V., I will make them (to be) a praise and a name. Jeremiah 33:9, "and this city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them." Cf. Jeremiah 13:11. The precise sense is not clear. In the passages in Jer. the people, being righteous and blessed, are the sourceof praise and renown to Jehovah, whose people they are. But the meaning might be that the people themselves are the objectof praise by the nations; Isaiah 61:9; Isaiah 62:7. Both ideas are elsewhere expressed; Jehovah bestows His glory on Israel (Isaiah 60:2), and this glory is reflected back upon Him, and He is glorified in Israel (Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:3; Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 61:3).

In every land … put to shame A.V. marg., Heb. (every land) of their shame. R.V. renders: whose shame hath been in all the earth. Both renderings are possible, but both are unnatural. R.V. lays an unnatural emphasis upon the pronoun: "I will make thema praise and a name, whose shame," &c., whereas "them" seems rather to refer back to "her that halteth" and "her that was driven away," or, to the people generally. On the other hand, the construction assumed by A.V. is ungrammatical, although occasional instances of it appear. The Sept. rightly felt that the natural sense of the passage was: and I will make them a praise and a name in all the earth(Zephaniah 3:20), and so rendered. The Heb. word their shame, still remaining undisposed of in this rendering, the Sept. attached to the next verse: and they shall be ashamed at that time. This is quite unsatisfactory. But the analogy of Zephaniah 3:20, a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, suggests that the expression their shameis not original.