Zephaniah 2:1-15

The Problem of Assyria

Book of Zephaniah

Gordon Churchyard

Chapter 2

v1 Come together. Come together, (people from) the country that will not be ashamed!

v2 (Come together) before:

• (the *LORD) blows you away in the wind like the dead part of a plant;

• the angry *LORD burns you in his fire;

• the day of the *LORD, (comes when he is) very, very angry with you.

v3 Look for the *LORD, everyone in the country (of Judah) that is *humble. Try to do what is very, very good. Look for (what makes you) *humble. Perhaps the *LORD will hide you when he is very angry.

v4 Do this because nobody will live in Gaza. And nobody will live in Ashkelon. At midday (an enemy) will frighten (everybody) away from Ashdod. And an enemy will pull out (the people that live in) Ekron.

v5 It will be a sad time for you people that live in the land by the (Mediterranean) Sea. That is, the country called Chereth. The words that the *LORD says are against you, Canaan. That is the land where the people called Philistines live. And I will destroy you so that nobody lives there.

v6 And the land by the sea will become fields of grass (where animals can eat). In the fields will be sheep farmers and safe places for the sheep.

v7 And the land (by the sea) will belong to the *remnant of Judah’s people. They will find food there. They will lie down in the evening in the houses of Ashkelon. This is because the *LORD their God will visit them. And he will give them back what is valuable (to them).

v8 I heard the bad words that Moab’s people said (about me). Also, (I heard) the bad things that the *descendants of Ammon said. (I heard them when) they laughed at my people. And when they said that they would take their land from them.

v9 So, (this is what) the *LORD of everything, the God of Israel, says. *As I live, Moab will become like Sodom. And the *descendants of Ammon will become like Gomorrah. (They will become) countries that are full of weeds and salt holes. They will always be *waste places. A *remnant of my people will take what they want from them. Some people will remain alive from my country. And they will have everything that belonged to (the people in Moab and Ammon).

v10 They will be ashamed instead of *proud because they said bad things about the people of the *LORD of Everything. And they laughed at them.

v11 The *LORD will frighten them very much because he will make the gods of the earth into nothing. Then everybody will *bow down to him, in every country and island in the world.

v12 My *sword will kill you also, (people in) *Cush.

v13 And he, (the *LORD), will lift his hand against the north and he will destroy Assyria. And he will make Nineveh an empty (city). (It will be) as dry as a *desert.

v14 Then groups (of animals) will lie down in it, all the wild animals. And the *desert *owl and the screaming *owl will make homes in the tops (of its broken buildings). The *owl will *hoot through the (broken) window and the *raven will *croak by the (broken) door. Because he (the *LORD) will show everybody the special wood (that is holding the building up).

v15 This city was so safe that its people became very *proud! They said to themselves, ‘We are here and there is nobody else.’ What a *waste place it has become! (It is only) a home for wild animals! Everybody that passes it will laugh at it. And he will *shake his fist.

Notes on Zephaniah Chapter 2

Verses 1-3 The *LORD is saying to people, ‘Come back to me, before I *punish you.’ The dead part of a plant is sometimes called ‘chaff’. The wind easily blows it away. ‘*Humble’ people means ‘people who do not think that they are very important’. Only God is very, very good. ‘Try to do what is very, very good’ means ‘try to be like God’.

Verses 4-15 In these verses, the *LORD says what will happen to the countries round Judah. There are 4 parts: verses 4-7; verses 8-11; verse 12 and verses 13-15.

Part 1

Verses 4-7 are about the people called Philistines. They lived to the west of Judah. They lived between Judah and the Mediterranean Sea. Their important cities were Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron. Canaan was an old name for all the country where the *Jews lived. Chereth may be another name for the country where the people called Philistines lived. Or it may be a name for a country that we do not know about. The *Hebrew word for ‘pull out’ in verse 4 is what you do to a weed. You pull it out from the ground so that it dies. In verse 7, there is the word ‘*remnant’. A *remnant is a small bit of something much bigger. It is a special Bible word. Isaiah often used it. It means a small number of God’s people. They remain after the enemy has killed all the other people. Zephaniah does not say who the enemy will be. ‘They’ in verse 7 may mean the sheep in verse 6. The place where the people called Philistines lived will be grass. Enemies will destroy their houses so only animals can live in them. But ‘they’ may be God’s people. At the end of verse 7, there are some important words:

1) visit: Here this means more than ‘come to see’. It means that God himself will do something special to make his people safe.

2) give them back what is valuable: This also may have another meaning. Bible students do not agree how to translate these *Hebrew words. But many say that it means ‘turn away their captivity’. This also may mean two things!

a) bring the *Jews back from *exile. The *Exile was when the *Babylonians took the *Jews from Judah to Babylon. This happened in 586 *B.C. They were in prison in Babylon, or ‘in captivity’ until 536 *B.C.

b) bring all God’s people back from a bad world to a good world. This will happen when Jesus returns to the earth.

Part 2

Verses 8-11 are about Moab and Ammon. They were countries to the east of Judah. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities that God destroyed. He destroyed them because the people in them did not obey his rules. The story is in Genesis chapter 19. We believe that Sodom and Gomorrah are under the salt sea. We call it the Dead Sea. A waste place is somewhere where there is nothing valuable. The *remnant have taken away everything that anyone would want to keep. Look at the note on verse 7 for ‘*remnant’. ‘*Proud’ (verse 10) means ‘to think that you are important’. Verse 11 says that one day ‘everybody will *bow down to’ God. In other words, everyone in the world will say that God is very great! Christians believe that this will happen when Jesus comes back to the earth as its king. Some parts of the Bible are about Jesus’ return. We call them by the word ‘*eschatological’. That means that Zephaniah is an *eschatological book. Revelation and parts of Isaiah, Daniel and Zechariah are the same. ‘As I live’, in verse 9, means ‘it really will happen’. God is alive. So ‘as I live’ means this: ‘It is sure that God is alive. So what he says is also sure. It will happen as he has said’ It is a special promise that we call an oath.

Part 3

Verse 12 is about the people in Cush. This was an old name for countries in the Nile Valley, maybe Egypt or Ethiopia, both south of Judah. Some of the *Jews had to go to Egypt. Jeremiah was one of them. God says that his *sword will kill the people from Cush. A *sword is a long sharp knife that soldiers used to kill people. Zephaniah meant that God would send a foreign army to destroy Cush.

Part 4

Verses 13-15 are about Assyria. A foreign army destroyed Assyria in 612 *B.C. In verse 13, ‘the north’ means ‘Assyria and other countries near it’. ‘(The *LORD) will lift his hand’. You lift your hand before you hit someone with your hand. Here, Zephaniah describes the foreign army from Persia as God’s hand. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. God will use a foreign army to destroy Nineveh. Then only animals will live there. Owls are birds that catch their food at night. They make a noise. We say that they ‘hoot’. Some owls make a long ‘oooo’ noise; other owls make a loud scream. Ravens are big black birds that eat dead bodies. We say that they ‘croak’. These may not be the right names for the birds that Zephaniah wrote about. Bible students are not sure. ‘*Shake’ means ‘move fast from side to side’. People *shake their fists when they are angry. Or they *shake them when something has happened to make them happy.

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words)

LORD ~ a special name for God that only his servants should use.
Lord ~ someone with authority; also a name for God. (It is not the same Hebrew word as LORD.)
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
humble ~ humble people do not think that they are very important.
remnant ~ a small part that remains from a larger piece.
descendant ~ a child, grandchild, and so on; a person in your family who lives after you are dead.'as I live ~ (here) because I, God, am alive, it really will happen!
waste ~ something that has no value or use that people throw away.
proud ~ to think that you are important when perhaps you are not.'bow down ~ bend in front of and become the servant of.
sword ~ a long, sharp knife that soldiers used.
Cush ~ an old name for countries in the Nile Valley, like Egypt or Ethiopia.
desert ~ land full of sand; it is so dry that not many plants grow there.
owl ~ a big bird that catches food at night.
hoot ~ make a noise like an owl.
owl ~ a big bird that catches food at night.
raven ~ a big black bird that eats dead bodies.
croak ~ make a noise like a raven.
raven ~ a big black bird that eats dead bodies.
shake ~ move something fast from one side to another and back again many times.
punish ~ hurt people because they have done bad things.
humble ~ humble people do not think that they are very important.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
exile ~ away from your own country.
exile ~ away from your own country.
Babylonians ~ these people came from the country called Babylon.
proud ~ to think that you are important when perhaps you are not.
eschatological ~ about the end of time, when Jesus returns to earth as king.
shake ~ move something fast from one side to another and back again many times.