THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
The Prophet Zephaniah, whose writings we are now entering upon, was the last of all the Prophets before the captivity of the Church, when carried away into Babylon; consequently a contemporary with Jeremiah. His name, which is compounded of Saphon, to hide, and Jah the Lord, signifies the secret of the Lord. His genealogy is enumerated in the first verse. If the Reader will consult Jeremiah 21:1 and Jeremiah 37:3 he will find Zephaniah sent by Zedekiah to consult Jeremiah on the subject of the Church's distress. The chief purport of his ministry seems to have been directed to proclaim to the Church the sure overthrow of Judah and Jerusalem; and as the other Prophets did, so did Zephaniah, point to the blessings in their recovery, by the promise of the coming of the Lord. I think it unnecessary to enlarge on those general observations, and therefore shall enter at once on the Book of Zephaniah; only first begging the Reader to join me in prayer before the throne, that our attention to this portion of the word of prophecy may not be in vain in the Lord.