Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zephaniah 1:1
The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Chap. 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, Jer 21:1; Jer 52:24; Zec 6:10.
the son of Hizkiah ] Hizkiah or Hezekiah may be the king of that name. It is unusual to carry the genealogy of a prophet further up than his father, and the exception in the present case suggests that Hezekiah, the last link in the chain, was a person of distinction. See Introduction, 1.
in the days of Josiah king of Judah ] The words “king of Judah” refer to Josiah, not to his father Amon. Josiah reigned b.c. 639 608.
The Book
The Book has two great divisions: First, ch. Zep 1:2 to Zep 3:8, a threat of judgment on the world: on Judah and the nations; and secondly, a promise of salvation equally universal, ch. Zep 3:9-20. The judgment is that of the great day of the Lord. The prophet represents it as universal, but concentrating itself on Judah, ch. Zep 1:2 to Zep 2:3; then as involving the nations, ch. Zep 2:4-15; and finally he speaks of Judah and the nations together, ch. Zep 3:1-8.
The passage ch. Zep 1:2 to Zep 2:3 has these divisions: (1) Judgment on all created things, and especially on Judah and Jerusalem ( Zep 1:2-7); (2) the classes in Jerusalem whom God will search out and punish ( Zep 1:8-13); (3) the terrors of the day of the Lord ( Zep 1:14-18); (4) exhortation to men to seek righteousness that they may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger (ch. Zep 2:1-3).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah – It seems likely that more forefathers of the prophet are named than is the wont of Holy Scripture, because the last so named was some one remarkable. Nor is it impossible that Zephaniah should have been the great grandson of the King Hezekiah, for although Holy Scripture commonly names the one son only who is in the sacred line, and although there is one generation more than to Josiah, yet if each had a son early, Zephaniah might have been contemporary with Josiah. The names seem also mentioned for the sake of their meaning; at least it is remarkable how the name of God appears in most. Zephaniah, whom the Lord hid; Gedaliah, whom the Lord made great; Amariah, whom the Lord promised; Hezekiah, whom the Lord strengthened.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zep 1:1-6
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah.
The Word
I. THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD.
1. The distinguishing capacity of man. To receive the word of Jehovah. To receive a word from another is to appreciate its meaning. The word of the Lord comes to every man at times,–comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart.
2. The wonderful condescension of God. Even to speak to man. The Lord hath respect unto the humble.
II. The moral corruption of man and the exclusive prerogative of God.
1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses.
(1) Idolatry. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops. The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places.
(2) Backsliding. Them that had turned back from the Lord. The other evil here is–
(3) Indifferentism. And those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him.
2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
(1) No one can really destroy but God. I kill and I make alive. Annihilation is as far behind the work of the creature as the work of creation.
(2) God has a right to destroy human life.
(3) His destructive work is as beneficent as His sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature: one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH
Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that it was written in the twelfth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah
-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3374.
-Year of the Julian Period, 4084.
-Year since the Flood, 1718.
-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1291.
-Year from the foundation of Solomon’s temple, 382.
-Year since the division of Solomon’s monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 346.
-Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 147.
-Third year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 124.
-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 118.
-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 92.
-Year before the birth of Christ, 626.
-Year before the vulgar era of Christ’s nativity, 630.
-Cycle of the Sun, 24.
-Cycle of the Moon, 18.
-Eighteenth year of Phraortes, king of Media. This monarch is supposed by some to have been the same with the Arphaxad of the Apocrypha.
-Eleventh year of Philip I., king of Macedon.
-Twenty-second year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.
-Fifteenth year of Eurycrates II., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.
-Twenty-ninth year of Cypselus, who had seized upon the government of Corinth.
-Forty-second year of Psammitichus, king of Egypt, according to Helvicus.
-Tenth year of Kiniladachus, king of Babylon, according to the same chronologer. This monarch was the immediate predecessor of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar.
-Second year of Sadyattes, king of Lydia.
-Eleventh year of Ancus Martius, the fifth king of the Romans.
-Twelfth year of Josiah, king of Judah.
CHAPTER I
This chapter begins with denouncing God’s judgments against
Judah and Jerusalem, 1-3.
Idolaters, and sinners of several other denominations, are then
particularly threatened; and their approaching visitation
enlarged on, by the enumeration of several circumstances which
tend greatly to heighten its terrors, 4-18.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Though this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet little concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain relative to the persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have one chronological note which is of more value for the correct understanding of his prophecy than the other could have been, how circumstantially soever it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of the disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident that he must have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was in the eighteenth year of his reign. And as he predicts the destruction of Nineveh, Zep 2:13, which, as Calmet remarks, could not have taken place before the sixteenth of Josiah, allowing with Berosus twenty-one years for the reign of Nabopolassar over the Chaldeans; we must, therefore, place this prophecy about the beginning of the reign of Josiah, or from B.C. 640 to B.C. 609. But see the chronological notes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The word; the declaration of the purpose of God, either spoken audibly, or clearly manifested by signs.
Of the Lord, God of Israel; here is the Divine authority of this prophecy with which the prophet’s word is seconded.
Which came: the precise manner how it came we need not inquire into;
Zephaniah did not hammer out of his own brain any such news, he received from God what he communicated to them. Zephaniah; by derivation of the name. it is one hidden of the Lord, whom God doth hide, or God’s secretary; or else one that is God’s Watchman, whom God hath set over the house of Judah, as Ezekiel is said to be, Eze 3:17.
The son of Cushi, &c. his pedigree here gives us no certainty what his progenitors were, whether prophets, or only eminent known men; or whether he were, as some think him, the great-grandson of Hezekiah, the name being the same.
In the days of Josiah; before the captivity; he was then contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. prophesied before the captivity, and foretells much like what Jeremiah or Ezekiel did.
Amon; whose reign was very full of impiety and idolatry, and hastened the captivity upon Judah. This Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh had made, 2Ch 33:22.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. days of JosiahHad theiridolatries been under former kings, they might have said, Our kingshave forced us to this and that. But under Josiah, who did all in hispower to reform them, they have no such excuse.
son of Amontheidolater, whose bad practices the Jews clung to, rather than the goodexample of Josiah, his son; so incorrigible were they in sin.
JudahIsrael’s tentribes had gone into captivity before this.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi,…. This is the title of the book, which expresses the subject matter of it, the word of the Lord; the word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; and shows the divine authority of it; that it was not of himself, nor from any man, but was of God; as well as describes the penman of it by his descent: who or what this his father was; whether a prophet, according to the rule the Jews give, that, when the name of a prophet and his father’s name are mentioned, he is a prophet, the son of a prophet; or, whether a prince, a person of some great family, and even of the blood royal, as some have thought, is not certain; or who those after mentioned:
the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah; which last name, consisting of the same letters with Hezekiah, king of Judah, some have thought, as Aben Ezra, that he is intended; and that Zephaniah was a great-grandson of his; and which some think is confirmed by his style and diction, and by the freedom he used with the king’s family, Zep 1:8 but it is objected, that, if so it was, Hizkiah, or Hezekiah, would have been called king of Judah; that it does not appear that Hezekiah had any other son besides Manasseh; and that there was not a sufficient distance of time from Hezekiah for four descents; and that, in fact, there were but three generations from him to Josiah, in whose days Zephaniah prophesied, as follows; though it is very probable that these progenitors of the prophet were men of note and character, and therefore mentioned, as well as to distinguish him from others of the same name, who lived
in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah: not Amos, as the Arabic version: Amon and Manasseh, who reigned between Hezekiah and Josiah, were both wicked princes, and introduced idolatrous worship among the Jews; which Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign began to purge the people from, and endeavoured a reformation; but whether it was before or after that Zephaniah delivered out this prophecy is not certain; it may seem to be before, by the corruption of the times described in it; and so it may be thought to have some influence upon the after reformation; though it is thought by many it was after; since, had he been in this office before the finding of the book of the law, he, and not Huldah the prophetess, would have been consulted,
2Ki 22:14 nor could the people so well have been taxed with a perversion of the law, had it not been as yet found, Zep 3:4 and, besides, the reformation seems to be hinted at in this prophecy, since mention is made of the remnant of Baal, which supposes a removal of many of his images; and also notice is taken of some that apostatized after the renewal of the covenant, Zep 1:4 moreover, the time of the Jews’ destruction and captivity is represented as very near, Zep 1:7 which began a little after the death of Josiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; to which Dr. Lightfoot f adds, that the prophet prophesies against the king’s children, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, for their new fashions, and newfangled apparel, Zep 1:8 and therefore it must be in the latter part of his reign; and, if so, it shows how a people may relapse into sin after the greatest endeavours for their good, and the best of examples set them. Mr. Whiston g and Mr. Bedford h place him in the latter part of his reign, about 611 or 612 B.C.: there were three that prophesied about this time, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Huldah the prophetess; of whom the Jewish Rabbins say, as Kimchi quotes them, Jeremiah prophesied in the streets, Zephaniah in the synagogues, and Huldah among the women.
f Works, vol. 1. p. 117. g Chronological Tables, cent. 9. h Scripture Chronology, p. 674.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Zep 1:1 contains the heading, which has been explained in the introduction. Zep 1:2 and Zep 1:3 form the preface. – Zep 1:2. “I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah. Zep 1:3. I will sweep away man and cattle, sweep away the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the offences with the sinners, and I cut off men from the face of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah.” The announcement of the judgment upon the whole earth not only serves to sharpen the following threat of judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem in this sense, “Because Jehovah judges the whole world, He will punish the apostasy of Judah all the more;” but the judgment upon the whole world forms an integral part of his prophecy, which treats more fully of the execution of the judgment in and upon Judah, simply because Judah forms the kingdom of God, which is to be purified from its dross by judgment, and led on towards the end of its divine calling. As Zephaniah here opens the judgment awaiting Judah with an announcement of a judgment upon the whole world, so does he assign the reason for his exhortation to repentance in Zep 2:1-15, by showing that all nations will succumb to the judgment; and then announces in Zep 3:9., as the fruit of the judgment, the conversion of the nations to Jehovah, and the glorification of the kingdom of God. The way to salvation leads through judgment, not only for the world with its enmity against God, but for the degenerate theocracy also. It is only through judgment that the sinful world can be renewed and glorified. The verb , the hiphil of suph , is strengthened by the inf. abs. , which is formed from the verb , a verb of kindred meaning. Suph and ‘asaph signify to take away, to sweep away, hiph. to put an end, to destroy. Kol , everything, is specified in Zep 1:3: men and cattle, the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea; the verb ‘aseph being repeated before the two principal members. This specification stands in unmistakeable relation to the threatening of God: to destroy all creatures for the wickedness of men, from man to cattle, and to creeping things, and even to the fowls of the heaven (Gen 6:7). By playing upon this threat, Zephaniah intimates that the approaching judgment will be as general over the earth, and as terrible, as the judgment of the flood. Through this judgment God will remove or destroy the offences (stumbling-blocks) together with the sinners. before cannot be the sign of the accusative, but can only be a preposition, with, together with, since the objects to are all introduced without the sign of the accusative; and, moreover, if were intended for an accusative, the copula Vv would not be omitted. Hammakhsheloth does not mean houses about to fall (Hitzig), which neither suits the context nor can be grammatically sustained, since even in Isa 3:6 hammakhshelah is not the fallen house, but the state brought to ruin by the sin of the people; and makhshelah is that against which or through which a person meets with a fall. Makhsheloth are all the objects of coarser and more refined idolatry, not merely the idolatrous images, but all the works of wickedness, like in Mat 13:41. The judgment, however, applies chiefly to men, i.e., to sinners, and hence in the last clause the destruction of men from off the earth is especially mentioned. The irrational creation is only subject to , on account of and through the sin of men (Rom 8:20.).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judgment Predicted. | B. C. 612. |
1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; 6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
Here is, I. The title-page of this book (v. 1), in which we observe, 1. What authority it has, and who gave it that authority; it is from heaven, and not of men: It is the word of the Lord. 2. Who was the instrument of conveying it to the church. His name was Zephaniah, which signifies the servant of the Lord, for God revealed his secrets to his servants the prophets. The pedigree of other prophets, whose extraction we have an account of, goes no further back than their father, except Zecharias, whose grandfather also is named. But this of Zephaniah goes back four generations, and the highest mentioned is Hizkiah; it is the very same name in the original with that of Hezekiah king of Judah (2 Kings xviii. 1), and refers probably to him; if so, our prophet, being lineally descended from that pious prince, and being of the royal family, could with the better grace reprove the folly of the king’s children as he does, v. 8. 3. When this prophet prophesied–in the days of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned well, and in the twelfth year of his reign began vigorously, and carried on a work of reformation, in which he destroyed idols and idolatry. Now it does not appear whether Zephaniah prophesied in the beginning of his reign; if so, we may suppose his prophesying had a great and good influence on that reformation. When he, as God’s messenger, reproved the idolatries of Jerusalem, Josiah, as God’s vice-gerent, removed them; and reformation is likely to go on and prosper when both magistrates and ministers do their part towards it. If it were towards the latter end of his reign that he prophesied, we sadly see how a corrupt people relapse into their former distempers. The idolatries Josiah had abolished, it should seem, returned in his own time, when the heat of the reformation began a little to abate and wear off. What good can the best reformers do with a people that hate to be reformed, as if they longed to be ruined?
II. The summary, or contents, of this book. The general proposition contained in it is, That utter destruction is coming apace upon Judah and Jerusalem for sin. Without preamble, or apology, he begins abruptly (v. 2): By taking away I will make an end of all things from off the face of the land, Saith the Lord. Ruin is coming, utter ruin, destruction from the Almighty. He has said it who can, and will, make good what he has said: “I will utterly consume all things. I will gather all things” (so some); “I will recall all the blessings I have bestowed, because they have abused them and so forfeited them.” The consumption determined shall take away, 1. The inferior creatures: I will consume the beasts, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea (v. 3), as, in the deluge, every living substance was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, Gen. vii. 23. The creatures were made for man’s use, and therefore when he has perverted the use of them, and made them subject to vanity, God, to show the greatness of his displeasure against the sin of man, involves them in his punishment. The expressions are figurative, denoting universal desolation. Those that fly ever so high, as the fowls of heaven, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies’ hand–those that hide ever so close, as the fishes of the sea, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies’ eye–shall yet become a prey to them, and be utterly consumed. 2. The children of men: “I will consume man; I will cut off man from the land. The land shall be dispeopled and left uninhabited; I will destroy, not only Israel, but man. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths. I will cut off, not only the wicked men, but all men; even the few among them that are good shall be involved in this common calamity. Though they shall not be cut off from the Lord, yet they shall be cut off from the land.” It is with Judah and Jerusalem that God has this quarrel, both city and country, and upon them he will stretch out his hand, the hand of his power, the hand of his wrath; and who knows the power of his anger? v. 4. Those that will not humble themselves under God’s mighty hand shall be humbled and brought down by it. Note, Even Judah, where God is known, and Jerusalem, where his dwelling-place is, if they revolt from him and rebel against him, shall have his hand stretched out against them. 3. All wicked people, and all those things that are the matter of their wickedness (v. 3): “I will consume the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, the idols with the idolaters, the offences with the offenders.” Josiah had taken away the stumbling-blocks, and, as far as he could, had purged the land of the monuments of idolatry, hoping that there would be no more idolatry; but the wicked will do wickedly, the dog will return to his vomit, and therefore, since the sin will not otherwise be cured, the sinners must themselves be consumed, even the wicked with the stumbling-blocks of their iniquity, Ezek. xiv. 3. Since it was not done by the sword of justice, it shall be done by the sword of war. See who the sinners are that shall be consumed. (1.) The professed idolaters, who avowed idolatry, and were wedded to it. The remnant of Baal shall be cut off, the images of Baal, and the worshippers of those images. Josiah cut off a great deal of Baal; but that which was so close as to escape the eye, or so bold as to escape the hand, of his justice, God will cut off, even all the remains of it. The Chaldeans would spare none of the images of Baal, or the worshippers of those images. The Chemarim shall be cut off; we read of them in the history of Josiah’s reformation. 2 Kings xxiii. 5, He put down the idolatrous priests: the word is the Chemarim. The word signifies black men, some think because they wore black clothes, affecting to appear grave, others because their faces were black with attending the altars, or the fires in which they burnt their children to Moloch. They seem to have been immediate attendants upon the service of Baal. They shall be cut off with the priests, the regulars with the seculars. The very name of them shall be cut off; the order shall be quite abolished, so as to be forgotten, or remembered with detestation. And, among other idolaters, the worshippers of the host of heaven upon the house-tops shall be cut off (v. 5), who justified themselves in their idolatry with those that did not worship images, the work of their own hands, but offered their sacrifices and burnt their incense to the sun, moon, and stars, immediately upon the tops of their houses. But God will let them know that he is a jealous God, and will not endure any rival; and, though some have thought that the most specious and plausible idolatry, yet it will appear as great an offence to God to give divine honours to a star as to give them to a stone or a stock. Even the worshippers of the host of heaven shall be consumed as well as the worshippers of the beasts of the earth or the fiends of hell. The sin of the adulteress is not the less sinful for the gaiety of the adulterer. (2.) Those also shall be consumed that think to compound the matter between God and idols, and keep an even hand between them, that halt between God and Baal, and worship between Jehovah and Moloch, and swear by both; or, as it might better be read, swear to the Lord and to Malcham. They bind themselves by oath and covenant to the service both of God and idols. They have a good opinion of the worship of the God of Israel; it is the religion of their country, and has been long so, and therefore they will by no means quit it; but they think it will be very much improved and beautified if they join with it the worship of Moloch, for that also is much used in other countries, and travellers admire it; there is a great deal of good fancy and strong flame in it. They cannot keep always to the worship of a God whom they have no visible representation of, and therefore they must have an image; and what better than the image of Moloch–a king? They think they shall effectually atone for their sin if they swear to Moloch, and, pursuant to that oath, burn their children in sacrifice to that idol; and yet, if they do amiss in that, they hope to atone for it in worshipping the God of Israel too. Note, Those that think to divide their affections and adorations between God and idols will not only come short of acceptance with God, but will have their doom with the worst of idolaters; for what communion can there be between light and darkness, Christ and Belial, God and mammon? She whose own the child is not pleads for the dividing of it, for, if Satan have half, he will have all; but the true mother says, Divide it not, for, if God have but half, he will have none. Such waters will not be long sweet, if they come from a fountain that sends forth bitter water too; what have those to do to swear by the Lord that swear by Malcham? (3.) Those also shall be consumed that have apostatized from God, together with those that never gave up their names to him, v. 6. I will cut off, [1.] Those that are turned back from the Lord, that were well taught, and began well, that had given up their names to him, and set out at first in the worship of him, but have flown off, and turned aside, and fallen in with idolaters, and deserted those good ways of God which they were brought up in, and despised them. Those God will be sure to reckon with who are renegadoes from his service, who began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh; they shall be treated as deserters, to whom no mercy is shown. [2.] Those that have not sought the Lord, nor ever enquired for him, never made any profession of religion, and think to excuse themselves with that, shall find that this will not excuse them; nay, this is the thing laid to their charge; they are atheistical careless people, that live without God in the world; and those that do so are certainly unworthy to live upon God in the world.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ZEPHANIAH —GENERAL ANALYSIS
WHO SPEAKS?
This book was written by Zephaniah, the last of the nine pre-exile prophets, as Hosea was the first. The name Zephaniah means “Jehovah hides.” He prophesied to Judah about 630-610 B.C., shortly before they were carried into Babylonian captivity. Zephaniah is believed to have been a prince, as well as a prophet, who like his grandfather, Hezekiah, King of Judah, four generations betore him, was considered to be one of the good kings of Judah, v. 1. Beyond this nothing is known of his personal life. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, the major prophet.
TO WHOM?
Zephaniah directed his message from the Lord to Judah, the southern two tribes of Israel, as Hosea the first of the pre-exile prophets, addressed his message to Israel, the northern ten tribes, Zep 1:1; Zep 1:4; Hos 1:1; Hos 1:4.
ABOUT WHAT?
The theme of Zephaniah is “Judgments of the day of the Lord;” This latter phrase is used more by him than by any other Bible writer. He contrasts “the day of man,” when God is longsuffering, with the “day of the Lord,” a day of irrevocable judgment vengeance upon Judah, and all nations, for their cleansing from disobedience to God.
WHEN?
Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of king Josiah in Judah. His father and grandfather had been godless men, but Josiah “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” See 2 Chronicles ch. 33-35. His reign was 641-610 B.C. It was in the latter part of his reign that Zephaniah prophesied and wrote, 630-610 B.C.
WHAT WAS THE OCCASION?
The prophecy was occasioned by the moral, ethical, and spiritual decay of the people of Judah. They had turned to idolatry, worshipping Baal and Molech, idol and false gods, ignored the law of their God, Exo 20:1-5. The immediate judgment of God is therefore announced, Zep 1:13; And the final day of “The Day of the Lord,” is foretold, with redemption rest, and final glory restored by Jehovah, to all Israel.
ZEPHANIAH – CHAPTER 1
JUDGMENT ON JUDAH
Verses 1-18:
Judah’s Judgments–Figure Of Future “Day Of The Lord”
Verse 1 claims inspiration for the prophet as “the word of the Lord,” to Zephaniah, in the days of Josiah, King of Judah. Let it be recalled that the word of the Lord is true (trustworthy) from the beginning, Psa 119:160; 2Pe 1:21. His lineal identity is then certified for the past four generations, indication that he was of the royal lineage of Hezekiah. See 2Ki 22:1-20; 2Ch 34:1-33; Jer 1:2; Jer 22:11. The father of Zephaniah was Cushi; and his three grandfathers of the previous three generations are given as Gedaliah, Amariah, and Hizkiah (the same as Hezekiah) 2 Kings 18 th ch. And 2Ki 20:1-21.
Verse 2 warns that the Lord will utterly consume (from the roots) “all things” from off the ground, from the root up. The people had been formerly warned, but had not heeded. They were now to be swept away from Judah, like a deluge, Jer 8:12-13.
Verse 3 enumerates the character of judgment was: a) upon man and beast, b) upon fowls of the heaven, and c) upon the fishes of the sea. Idols that had been erected to men, beasts, fowls, and fishes, with Baal and Molech as chief among the heathen, idol gods had caused them to stumble like blind or drunk men, in matters of morals, ethics, and the Law of the Lord, Exo 14:3-4; Exo 14:7. These judgments were to fall because they had willfully offended God, See also Jer 9:10; Hos 4:3; Deu 7:26.
Verse 4 asserts that God was about to stretch out His hand in judgment over Judah and Jerusalem in a special way. Those most exalted in Israel must also suffer for their sins of omission and commission. The remnant of Baal worshippers were to be cut off, carried away from the land, or slain; And the name of the chemarims, Phoenecians with her idolatrous priests, illegally ordained by the kings of Judah, 2Ki 23:5; Hos 10:5; Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21. Judgment begins at the house of God, 1Pe 4:7; Lev 10:2; Eze 9:6.
Verse 5 continues God’s warning that He will stretch out His judgment hand against those who worship the “host of heaven upon the housetops” These were the star-worshippers and incense-burners upon the roofs of residences. They are also denounced, Jer 19:13; 2Ki 23:12. For they sought to mix the worship of God with idolatry, Jer 32:20. They swear by both the Lord and Malcham, which means Molech, at the same time, putting the living God on a level with the blind, deaf, dumb, and lifeless gods of the heathen, against their own law, Exo 20:1-5; 2Ch 15:14; Hos 4:15; 1Ki 18:21; Eze 20:39; Mat 6:24.
Verse 6 includes the third and fourth classes of those against whom the Lord would stretch out His hand of judgment vengeance, in addition to the two mentioned above, v. 4, 5. They are: 1) Those who “turn back from the Lord,” become apostate, apostatized, and 2) Those who have not even sought or inquired of the Lord, to know His ways. They have simply been indifferent, Isa 1:1-7; Jer 2:13; Jer 2:17.
Verse 7 calls upon Judah and Jerusalem to hold their peace, to be silent, at the presence of the Lord, who is about to speak in all His majesty. It is a summon to be silent and in submission as judgment comes speedily, Hab 2:20. It is announced that the Lord has prepared His sacrifice of victims of justice, Isa 34:6; Jer 46:10. Nations have been consecrated to war that they may consume Jacob or Israel, Jer 10:25. These heathen nations are guests of the Lord, to chasten His erring, though chosen people of Israel, in their disobedience to Him, Isa 13:3; 1Sa 9:13; 1Sa 9:22; 1Sa 16:5.
Verse 8 announces that in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice He will punish the princes or nobles of Judah, the ringleaders, who should have set an example in public life rather than imitate the greedy and oppressive behavior of heathen nations. He adds a warning that He will also punish the king’s children, and all who are clothed with strange apparel, those wearing vestments or robes to denote the worship of each different god in all the land. 2Ki 10:22; Jer 39:6. For such was a violation of the Divine Law Judah had vowed to keep. They were also forbidden to wear women’s garments, a thing they had come to practice, as may transvestites and homosexuals do even today, Deu 22:5. It is in stark contrast with the clean and white garments of wedding .saints, at the marriage of the Lamb, Rev 19:8.
Verse 9 continues to affirm that God will punish, in this pending judgment, “all those that leap on the threshold,” an idol practice or ritual attached to adoration of Dagon, in violence, to take spoils of others, to enrich their own houses and that of their superiors. They were marked for a severe Divine judgment; Such is also condemned; Man is warned against this course of life, 1Ti 6:17-19; Jas 5:1-6. See also Pro 11:28; Luk 6:24: Jer 17:11.
Verse 10 further predicts that there shall be “come to be”, to exist in Jerusalem, at the time of her siege by the Chaldeans, a terrorizing cry at the fish gate, which stood near the fish-market entrance to the city, 2Ch 23:14; Neh 3:3. This shall be followed by a similar cry of terror from the second. or inner part of the city, Neh 12:31-39. And from the hills of Zion and Moriah, just southward from the fish gate, this howl of fear shall resound again and again, as the cruel crashing of the Chaldean army tears down, crashes, and plunders the city. from house to house, 2Ki 22:14; 2Ch 24:22; Isa 15:5.
Verse 11 calls upon the market place (bazaar) inhabitants also to howl. Those of the Maktesh (the mortar), a rock depression area of the city where fine grains were hulled, were to run screaming from their humble places of trade and livelihood, as the mighty armies of Chaldea swept through the city gates and over the walls into Jerusalem to rape, ravage, burn, and destroy it, carrying away the silver, gold, and best furniture from the temple and homes of the wealthy, Nah 2:9; Dan 5:1-4. See also Zec 14:21; Hos 12:7; Hab 2:6.
Verse 12 warns that God will punish Judah and Jerusalem for their obstinate course of rebellion and idolatry through the idolatrous Chaldean army and nation. So severe will the punishment be that none can hide from the judgment. Even a candle light will detect those settled on their lees, careless, indifferent, doing nothing, to amend the wickedness of their people, Jer 48:11; Amo 6:1; Amo 9:3. For to “him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin,” Jas 4:17. These of Jerusalem and Judea had grown to be cynics, agnostics, and skeptics, alleging that God would neither do good nor evil, placing Him on a level with idols, which they had tolerated and come to worship too, Isa 41:23; Jer 10:5; Psa 55:19.
Verse 13 asserts that such conduct is the reason their houses shall be desolated, destroyed, and their goods seized as booty by the enemy invaders. Such as are left behind, not carried into captivity, as well as those taken captive, were to be slaves for a 70 year period, because of their sins, Deu 28:30; Amo 5:11; Jer 25:11; Dan 9:1-2.
Verse 14 foretells the great day of the Lord that was at hand, then imminent, for the destruction and captivity of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar, a pre-figure of the day of the Lord, when He comes to the Earth in The Tribulation The Great, at the end, at the battle of Armageddon, to subdue all things, and to judge, Jer 25:30; Joe 2:1; Joe 2:11; 2Th 1:7; Amo 1:2.
Verse 15 further describes that armed invasion day of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem to blast her hope and glory, make her utterly desolate, bring her to pain and humiliation, a state of stress and distress (emptiness) within and without. As a literal historical judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem, this is certified to be a picture of the terrible judgment of God that shall come to all, at the end of this age, who have forgotten God, Psa 9:17; Isa 19:8; Job 2:2; Job 2:11; Amo 5:18.
Verse 17 continues to describe this day of the Lord’s judgment visitation as a day of the trumpet, to sound alarm of approaching enemies who were bent on destroying their fenced cities and high towers or fortified places, Amo 2:2, Yet the blasting trumpets, city fences, and high fortifications could not, would not, save them from the vengeance of the Babylonians. Nor will any invention, purpose, or plan of any man keep him from one day facing the judgment of God and His own sins, 2Co 5:10; Heb 9:26-27.
Verse 17 asserts that God Himself will bring distress upon the disobedient, the lawless, those who have rejected Him and His ways, so that they walk, groping as blind men, uncertain, fearful, stumbling, until their blood should be shed as dust, and their flesh become as dung, putrid, putrefied, or rotten, food for worms. God gave them up, without further counsel or help, because of their own chosen paths of sin, Deu 28:29; Nah 2:5; 2Ki 13:7; Gen 13:16.
Verse 18 asserts that neither their silver nor their gold would be able to bribe them off from judgment in the day of the Lord’s wrath. For the Lord, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar’s army, was resolved to devour the land, by the fire of His jealousy, to rid the land of all the inhabitants speedily, in a very short time, Pro 11:4; Eze 7:19; Eze 38:19; See also Isa 13:17; Jer 4:30; Jer 46:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Zephaniah first mentions the time in which he prophesied; it was under the king Josiah. The reason why he puts down the name of his father Amon does not appear to me. The Prophet would not, as a mark of honor, have made public a descent that was disgraceful and infamous. Amon was the son of Manasseh, an impious and wicked king; and he was nothing better than his father. We hence see that his name is recorded, not for the sake of honor, but rather of reproach; and it may have been that the Prophet meant to intimate, what was then well known to all, that the people had become so obdurate in their superstitions, that it was no easy matter to restore them to a sound mind. But we cannot bring forward anything but conjecture; I therefore leave the matter without pretending to decide it.
With regard to the pedigree of the Prophet, I have mentioned elsewhere what the Jews affirm—that when the Prophets put down the names of their fathers, they themselves had descended from Prophets. But Zephaniah mentions not only his father and grandfather, but also his great-grandfather and his great-great-grandfather; and it is hardly credible that they were all Prophets, and there is not a word respecting them in Scripture. I do not think, as I have said elsewhere, that such a rule is well-founded; but the Jews in this case, according to their manner, deal in trifles; for in things unknown they hesitate not to assert what comes to their minds, though it may not have the least appearance of truth. It is possible that the father, grandfather, the great-grandfather, and the great-great-grandfather of the Prophet, were persons who excelled in piety; but this also is uncertain. What is especially worthy of being noticed is— that he begins by saying that he brought nothing of his own, but faithfully, and, as it were, by the hand, delivered what he had received from God.
With regard, then, to his pedigree, it is a matter of no great moment; but it is of great importance to know that God was the author of his doctrine, and that Zephaniah was his faithful minister, who introduced not his own devices, but was only the announcer of celestial truth. Let us now proceed to the contents –
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
ZEPHANIAHOR THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT AND APOCALYPSE
Zep 1:1 to Zep 3:19
A RECENT writer says, The Book of Zephaniah is one of the most difficult in the prophetic canon. And then he proceeds to show that its text is damaged, that it has unusual grammatical forms and phrases; its date difficult; and it is probably corrupted by interpolations, etc! On the contrary, we believe the Book of Zephaniah presents fewer problems than almost any other of the Minor Prophets. No man reading it but will be impressed with the remarkable unity and harmony of the composition, the splendid dignity of the style, the accurate predictions of impending judgments, and the clear Apocalyptic vision vouchsafed to the author.
His family history, and the time of his writing, are as plainly stated as the Prophets pen could write them. The Word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, is the marvelous introduction. In that single phrase we have the unmistakable claim of inspiration, The Word of the Lord. The Prophet is not dealing in original productions, but passing on Divinely given sentences, Which came unto Zephaniah. He is not telling what visions others have had, or what heavenly words others have heard; he is reporting information at first hand; he is saying, God has spoken to me, and that directly. He is declaring his office of Prophet, As God spake to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, and to Ezekiel, and to Hosea, and to Obadiah, and others so God has spoken to me. And if you want to know who I am, he adds, I am the fourth generation from Hizkiah, the king. My father was Cushi, his father Gedaliah, Gedaliahs father was Amariah, and Amariah was the son of Hizkiah. I belong to a royal household. How marvelous! Let us remark, in passing, that God despises all our little paper-partitions of society. Two lessons ago we were speaking of Micah, the Morashthitethe villager, the man of whose family nothing was known; who boasted no royal blood, but confessed himself to belong to the common peopleand he was Gods Prophet! God is not shut up to the rich when He wants to select a Prophet. Today we deal with Zephaniah, Gods Prophetthe descendant of a king. God is not shut up to the houses of the poor, when He wants to raise up for Himself a spokesman. And, lest the critics to come should dislocate Zephaniahs utterance and by processes of reasoning as strange as specious, set Zephaniah in an age to which he did not belong, he writes, These things belong to the days of Josiah, king of Judah and forever fixes the date definitelythe time of that good kings adminstration, between the years 642 and 611 B. C.
Now that we know whence this man received his message, what his name was, to what house he belonged, and in what period of the worlds history he wrote, let us pass on to consider his message. It opens with
THE JUDGMENT OF JUDEA
I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.
I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham;
And them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for Him.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests.
And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lords sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the kings children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters houses with violence and deceit (Zep 1:2-9).
It is Gods sentence against sin. Nothing else would ever tempt such words from the lips of the Living God. He is not one who delights in anathemas; He is not one who finds pleasure in boasting His power; He is not one who is tempted to hurl His thunderbolts of judgment just because they are subject to His commands. There are some men in the world for whom position is dangerous because they proceed immediately to employ their power in crushing their competitors, or scourging their enemies. There are some men in the world who, if they were put on the police force and felt that they had the city government back of them, would employ a billy on half the men they meet; the innocent are as likely to fall victim to their stroke as are the guilty.
But Jesus Christ, who was the express image of the Father, God incarnate, in the flesh, showed another disposition altogether. You will remember that when Judas came, and with him a great multitude, to take Jesus, and they laid hands on Him,
Behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priests, and smote off his ear.
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?
And then, with such power at His command, Christ calls not for a one of them; on the contrary He calmly contains Himself, when He knew that the easiest thing in the world to accomplish was the crushing of His opponents. But with all of His ability at consuming them He struck not a blow, uttered not a sentence of judgment! That is the image of the Father. Sin, and sin alone, brings from Him such sentences as this, I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heavens, etc.
We have not yet learned the meaning of the Apostle when he spoke of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It is the one thing, and the only thing in all the universe of God that rouses His anger, stirs His wrath, and against which He speaks a consuming sentence. When we realize this, it ought to result in our searching to see if there be any evil way in us. It ought to send us on a heart-investigation to find if one black spot is there. The Mohammedans have the saying, In every human being there are two black spots of sin, and a story to the effect that their great Prophet Mahomet was not originally free from this common lot of man; but an angel was sent to take his heart and squeeze these black drops out of it, and that that was the secret of his holiness and success. That mystical legend contains a lesson men ought to learn, for even the heathen seem to understand that sin is the one thing God will not abide, and against which His sentence is ever sure.
God particularizes the points of their offense. He tells the people of Judah that they are guilty of idolatry, and the neglect of the Lord. He remarks upon the luxury of their princes, and the violence and deceit of their peasants. He calls attention to the prosperity which has fruited in insolence on the part of the people. Baal-worship was in the midst of them. They were also bowing down to the hosts of heaven and swearing by Malcham. The princes, the kings children, were running after the fashions, and the worldlings about them, while the rich filled their houses with violence and deceit.
It has been interesting to me to note that God never executes judgment against people without reviewing for them their offenses. What an exhibition of His perfect justice! One might say, God saw all this; God knew the evil of it all, and if He executed dreadful judgment in silence, He would be justified. No, that is not the part of the Judge! He may know that the man on trial before him is guilty; he may know all the criminal steps which he took in coming to the court; he may know that he deserves severe punishment, but he has no right to sentence him without reviewing the whole crime in the presence of the guilty man, that he may see himself also as he is seen of others. I do not suppose that these people of Judea appreciated to what depths they had fallen until Jehovah exploited their iniquities at the lips of Zephaniah. Satan has a custom of blind-folding his subjects so that as they descend they shall not see just why they are going down, nor yet how rapidly. One of the greatest preachers of the past century remarked, I think that men in evil courses are all like persons who go down winding stairs. The upper stairs hide the lower ones, so that they can see only three or four steps before them. Men go down courses of pleasure and vice and crime, seeing only one or two steps in a whole career. And so each step is a slight one; although the whole of their career may be monstrous there is no one single point of it, clear down to its very last stages that excites their conscience, or raises their fear. * * They are gradually demoralized and carried down. And I seriously question whether all of them know the way by which they came, or the depths to which they have descended. And yet, when at last their monstrous characters call for such a sentence as is here pronounced, God proposes that they shall see themselves as He has seen them, and so He reviews the whole history of their descent, and dwells, in passing, upon the malignant, growing offense. Not that He takes delight in it any more than an affectionate father could find pleasure in the reproof of his prodigal child, but that he must have the condemned understand that He is justified when He speaks and clear when He judges.
But, God also pleads the saving power of repentance.
How like Jehovah that! This Prophet reminds one again of Jonah; through the streets of Nineveh he went, crying, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. It was the sentence of judgment. There did not seem to be one ray of hope for the redemption of these people; and yet, when Sardanapolus, the king, humbled himself, and sat in ashes, and his people from the greatest to the least of them repented their sin, God saved them. Shall He not do as much for His own elect?
There is no inconsistency in the statement, I will utterly consume all things, and the appeal,
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lords anger come upon you.
Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger (Zep 2:1-3).
The sentence was passed and that sentence is going to be executed. But God is saying that if any man repent him of his evil deeds and seek righteousness, he shall escape, as Noah escaped when the world was whelmed; and as Lot escaped when Sodom burned as an oven; and as Rahab escaped when Joshua put all Jericho to the edge of the sword; and as the thief on the cross escaped when his brother beside him perished.
Oh, the saving power of repentance! Who is able to measure its meaning? It is little wonder that this was the burden of Johns preaching, Repent ye! It is little wonder that the Son of God Himself repeated the sentence! It is little wonder that every Apostle proved himself a true successor to the Prophet in calling men to the same, for they that repent perish not. And when at last the hour is on for the opening of the sixth seal, and men are livid in the light of the coming judgment, And kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, those who have repented of their sins, who have sought the righteousness of which the Prophet speaks, shall be hid in the hollow of Gods all-keeping hand!
But, having finished with Judea, the Prophet now turns his attention to others and speaks of
THE END FOR GODS ENEMIES
Zep 2:4-7
He names them every one. Moab, and Ammon, Ethiopia and Nineveh! There are hours when it is dreadful to hear ones name called! There are moments when to be named is to be doomed! That hour and that moment is come for the people of Gaza, and Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and Ekron. That hour and that moment is come for the inhabitants of the sea coast, and the dwellers in Philistia! That hour and that moment is come for that great city Nineveh, which had heard the sentences of Jonah, and seemed repentant, to return again to grosser sin; which had listened to the anathemas of Nahum, and imagined at last that God did not mean what His Prophets were saying. Zephaniah adds his word, and Nineveh is signaled out, not for sentence, that had been passed before, but for execution for the day of wrath had come. I have an idea that men living in sin indulge the skepticism that God does not know them by name, and with Ingersoll, doubt His ability to count the hairs of ones head, or sit beside every sparrow dying in the street. But, if He call His own by name, as He says, knoweth He not also the wicked? Did you ever think of the first Psalm as an illustration of this thought?
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the Law of the Lord; and in His Law doth he meditate day and night
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
He suits the sentence to the sin. If you will examine the offenses of these nations you will find that every one is reaping whereon he has sown. Those that have rebelled shall be destroyed; those that have worshiped at false shrines shall famish for gods; those that have taken the sword shall perish by the sword, those that have employed their powers for oppression shall be themselves oppressed. It is an interesting thing to run through the Old Testament to see how God has illustrated there the law, Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. You remember Haman built a gallows for Mordecai; but Haman hung thereon himself. You will remember that Absalom proposed to dethrone his father, and the very head, ambitious to wear the crown, was lifted up in death on an oak limb. You will remember that Adoni-bezek had seventy kings whose thumbs and great toes he had cut off, crawling about his palace, eating the crumbs that fell from his table. But when Judah went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and Perizites into their hands, and they caught Adoni-bezek, the king, they cut off his thumbs and his great toes, and he said, As I have done, so God hath requited me. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
It seems also clear from this Scripture that the day for sentence against sin is definitely fixed. Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy (Zep 3:8). One does not follow history far before he finds the day of judgment for these nations. And as that prophecy was fulfilled for them, so it will surely come to pass for us. The day of the Lord will reveal all secrets, and the impenitent shall face their sins, and read them in the bright light of His awful presence. I never think along this line without recalling Hawthornes graphic picture of this truth. It is written into The Scarlet Letter. A great wrong has been committed, sin against self, against confidence, against society, and against God, and hence the necessity of keeping it secret. But as time goes on, it burns in his bones, as did the same iniquity destroy David until sleep goes from his eyes, and Arthur Dimmesdale, under the shroud of night, ascends the scaffold erected for the purpose of exposing to shame those who had sinned, and stands there alone, remembering that he had been the cause of the public disgrace of another on that very spot. And, lo, while he waits, Hester and little Pearl pass, and join him, and while the three stand on that awful spot, suddenly a light gleamed far and wide over the night. It was doubtless one of those meteors which night-watchers have often observed, burning out to waste in the atmosphere. So bright was its radiance that it thoroughly illuminated the night between heaven and earth. And then, having described, as only Hawthorne could, the weird aspect of all the earth about them, he adds, And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart, and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter, glittering on her bosom, and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that sudden and solemn splendor as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets. And who shall speak of that other day when that light itself is on! No pen can picture it! No tongue can tell its solemn awe! Suffice it to say it will be the day of judgment for all such as have rejected God, and delighted themselves in inquity.
How grateful one ought to be that Zephaniah does not conclude with this picture, but passes on to
THE PROPHETS APOCALYPSE
The day of the Lord is prophesied. Let no man tell me that when the day of the Lord is on it will reveal nothing but judgment, and that all will be devoured in the fierceness of Divine anger! It is not so! The Lord has always some faithful men, some pure women, some holy children; and He always will have them. And to the very conclusion of this declaration, all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy, He adds, I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord (Hab 3:8; Hab 3:12). To me, this is a remarkable sentence, and with the majority of the students of this Scripture I believe that it is Apocalyptic, that it refers not alone to that bit of ancient history, but also to that great day of the Lord described by John in Revelation; and to that righteous remnant, known to nearly every Prophet of the Old Testament, and often described in the New; but inasmuch as I have discussed this remnant, on other occasions, I wish to remark only, this time, that God describes them as An afflicted and poor people. Truly, as Joseph Parker remarked, However various the interpretations that may be put upon this sentence it would seem to fall into harmony with the words of the Lord Jesus when He said, The poor always ye have with you.
One never thinks of such persecution as has taken place in Armenia, and of such martyrdom as that to which the Jews of Russia and Poland have lately been subjected, without remembering that the most steadfast faith in God is commonly found with an afflicted and poor people. It might be well, therefore, for those churches which are ambitious to get in the rich and the cultured of earth, those churches which boast their high social standing, and speak so often of the first families of their membership, to remember that the Prophets Apocalypse finds Gods people among the afflicted and poor, and that no little history has already been made in warrant of the Divine Word.
Again, The Prophet puts into the lips of Gods people a song.
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack (Zep 3:14-16).
No man can believe that this prophecy has been wholly fulfilled. There was a righteous remnant saved in the old day, and restored to Jerusalem, but of them it could not have been said, Thou shall not see evil any more. On the contrary all the prophecies concerning the affliction of Gods ancient people have gone on in literal fulfillment from year to year for centuries, and is going on now.
But, blessed be God, it cannot go on forever. There is coming a time when to these it shall be said, Thou shalt not see evil any more. Just because there is coming a time when the Lord God is going to be in the midst of them, and that in His might, and He will save, and He will rejoice over them with joy, they shall rest in His love, and He will joy over them in singing. There is coming a time when He will save them and gather them that were driven out, a time when He will bring them again and make their name a praise among all the people of the earth, that is the great day of the Lord.
I want to commend the reading of A. J. Gordons book Ecce Venit, and especially the chapter on The Restoration of Israel where he sagely interprets this Scripture, For you know it is true of the New Testament also that Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in But already God is showing the approaching end of that time, for did He not say by Jeremiah, concerning this scattered people, I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion? And He has been about it; and is about it today.
That is only the earnest of that greater gathering to come, concerning which He has spoken, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, that brought up the Children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. The hour is coming, when, according to His own promise [He shall] plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God (Amo 9:15). I like to dwell upon that day; in part because it means salvation for Gods ancient people, but also because it means The day of the Lord for all those who, by faith, have become the children of Abraham. That day Jew and Gentile shall become the brethren indeed, by their acceptance of Jehovah God, and their common faith in His Son Jesus Christ. That day the Church which has waited so long, wondering what will be the end, shall find the literal fulfillment of Zephaniahs words, The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy. It is the great realization of all Christian hope; it is the great consummation of all Christian endeavor; it is the crowning day of Christ; it is the day when those who have suffered with Him shall be invited to sit with Him on His throne; it is the day of which Thomas
Hastings wrote:
Hail to the brightness of Zions glad morning!
Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain!
Hushed be the accents of sorrow and mourning;
Zion in triumph begins her mild reign.
Hail to the brightness of Zions glad morning,
Long by the Prophets of Israel foretold!
Hail to the millions from bondage returning,
Gentiles and Jews the blest vision behold.
Lo I in the desert rich flowers are springing,
Streams ever copious are gliding along;
Loud from the mountain-tops echoes are ringing,
Wastes rise in verdure and mingle in song.
See, from all lands, from the isles of the ocean,
Praise to Jehovah ascending on high;
Fallen are the engines of war and commotion,
Shouts of salvation are rending the sky.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CHAPTER XX
JUDGEMENT OF GOD
SALUTATION . . . Zep. 1:1
RV . . . The word of Jehovah which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
LXX . . . The word of the Lord which came to Sophonias the son of Chusi, the son of Godolias, the son of Amorias, the son of Ezekias, in the days of Josias son of Amon, king of Judah.
COMMENTS
As in other prophetic writings, Zephaniahs opening verse leaves no room for doubt as to the origin of his message. He does not describe his call, as does Isaiah, nor claim to have seen a vision, as, for example, Nahum. But the claim to inspiration is never in doubt.
It is not in the scope of this work to prove the validity of this claim. The reader is referred to the Moody Press (1963) publication, Can I Trust The Bible, edited by Howard F. Vos for an excellent series of treatises on the subject as it pertains to the entire Bible.
We shall simply proceed on the presupposition that Zephaniah was among those described by Peter as men (who) spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. 2Pe. 1:21)
The prophets opening words the word of Jehovah are calculated to establish the authority of what he is about to say. He claims royal lineage and has easy access to the courts of Judah, but these ate not the authority to which he appeals. He will write down the word of Jehovah God.
Zephaniah identifies himself as son of Cushi . . . of Gedaliah . . . of Amariah . . . of Hezekiah. We know virtually nothing of either Cushi or Gedaliah or Amariah. The important name here is Hezekiah, the last God-fearing king of Judah prior to Josiah with whom Zephaniah is contemporary. (See introductory Chapter 19 for discussion of ancestry and date of Zephaniah.)
Chapter XXQuestions
Judgement of God
1.
Discuss Zephaniahs claim to inspiration.
2.
Trace the idea of judgement by fire.
3.
What are the stumbling blocks which cause man to sin? (Zep. 1:3)
4.
Who are the hosts of heaven on the housetops?
5.
Discuss the religious syncretism of Zephaniahs day as seen in Judahs compromise with strange gods as it typlifies modern religious syncretism.
6.
Who will likely be most surprised by Gods judgement? (Zep. 1:6)
7.
Discuss Zephaniahs pronouncement of judgement against Judah in light of the principle set down in 1Pe. 4:17.
8.
Who are those clothed in foreign apparel? (Zep. 1:8)
9.
Who are those that leap over the threshold? (Zep. 1:9)
10.
When the invading Babylonians came against Jerusalem they came from the ___________________.
11.
Discuss I will search with lamps. (Zep. 1:12)
12.
Were the apostles and the prophets mistaken as to the soon coming of the final Day of the Lord? Explain,
13.
How do you reconcile the wrath of God and the love of God?
14.
Gods threatenings are always a call to ___________________.
15.
Who are the meek?
16.
Meekness is _______________ ___________________.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Hizkiah.Or, Hezekiah; possibly the king of that name (see Introd. I.).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(1-6) Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem is impending on account of a religious apostacy of manifold forms and degrees. The wide range of this judgment.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The title.
The word of Jehovah which came See on Hos 1:1. For the genealogy of the prophet see p. 505; for the date of his ministry, pp. 506ff.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The word of YHWH which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.’
The detailed genealogy, unusual for a prophet, suggests that his was an important family, and we are probably therefore to see the Hezekiah mentioned as the king of that name. He was thus of the royal house.
‘The word of YHWH’ came to him signifies that he spoke as from God through revelation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Zep 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Zep 1:1
[6] Douglas Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 31, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on “General Introduction,” and “The Canonical Order of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah.”
In writing the title to the book of Zephaniah, the author was inspired by the Holy Spirit to recognize the fact that Zephaniah was a descendent of King Hezekiah.
Comments The Manner in which Divine Oracles were Delivered unto the Prophets – God spoke through the Old Testament prophets in various ways, as the author of the epistle of Hebrews says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). The Lord spoke divine oracles ( ) through the Old Testament prophets in three general ways, as recorded in the book of Hosea, “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” (Hos 12:10) ( NKJV) In other words, the prophets spoke to Israel through the words they received, they described divine visions to the people, and they acted out as divine drama an oracle from the Lord.
(1) The Word of the Lord Came to the Prophets – God gave the prophets divine pronouncements to deliver to the people, as with Hos 1:1. The opening verses of a number of prophetic books say, “the word of the Lord came to the prophet” Thus, these prophets received a divine utterance from the Lord.
(2) The Prophets Received Divine Visions – God gave the prophets divine visions ( ), so they prophesied what they saw ( ) (to see). Thus, these two Hebrew words are found in Isa 1:1, Oba 1:1, Nah 1:1, and Hab 1:1. Ezekiel saw visions ( ) of God.
(3) God Told the Prophets to Deliver Visual Aids as Symbols of Divine Oracles – God asked the prophets to demonstrate divine oracles to the people through symbolic language. For example, Isaiah walked naked for three years as a symbol of Assyria’s dominion over Egypt and Ethiopia (Isa 20:1-6). Ezekiel demonstrated the siege of Jerusalem using clay tiles (Eze 4:1-3), then he laid on his left side for many days, then on his right side, to demonstrate that God will require Israel to bear its iniquities.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Nature of the Judgment
v. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, v. 2. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord, v. 3. I will consume man and beast, v. 4. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, v. 5. and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, v. 6. and them that are turned back from the Lord, v. 7. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God! v. 8. And it shall came to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, v. 9. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, v. 10. And It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION.
Zep 1:1-18
Part I. THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE WORLD, AND UPON JUDAH IN PARTICULAR.
Zep 1:1
1. Title and inscription. The word of the Lord (see note on Mic 1:1). Zephaniah, “Whom the Lord shelters” (see Introduction, II.). The son of, etc. The genealogy thus introduced shows that the prophet was of illustrious descent; or it may be inserted to distinguish him from others who bore the same name. Hizkiah. The same name which is elsewhere written in our version Hezekiah. Whether the great King of Judah is here meant may well be questioned (see Introduction). Other prophets have prefixed their genealogies to their books (see Zec 1:1; and in the Apocrypha, Baruch 1:1). In the days of Josiah. Zephaniah here gathers into one volume the denunciations and predictions which he had uttered daring the reign of Josiah, both before and after the great reformation effected by that good king (2Ki 23:1-37.).
Zep 1:2, Zep 1:3
2. The prelude, announcing the judgment upon the whole world.
Zep 1:2
I will utterly consume; literally, taking away I will make an end. Jeremiah (Jer 8:13)uses the same expression. The prophet begins abruptly with this announcement of universal judgment before he warns Judah in particular of the punishment that awaits her, because his position is that the way to salvation is through chastisement. Vulgate, congregans congregabo, where the verb must be used in the sense of “gathering for destruction.” All things. More expressly defined in the following verse. This awful warning recalls the judgment of the Flood and the preliminary monition (Gen 6:7). From off the land; from the face of the earth, not the land of Judah alone. Saith the Lord; is the saying of Jehovah. The prophet in this is merely the vehicle of the Divine announcement.
Zep 1:3
Man and beast, etc This is not mere hyperbole to express the utter wasting and destruction that were impending, but points to the mysterious connection between man and the lower creation, how in agreement with the primal curse even material nature suffers for man’s sin (Gen 3:17; Rom 8:22). If we expect a new heaven and a new earth, we know that God will show his wrath against the old creation defiled with sin (2Pe 3:10; camp. Jer 4:25; Jer 9:9, etc.; Hos 4:3). And the stumbling blocks with the wicked. Not the sinners only shall be swept away by this judgment, but also all offences, all causes of stumbling, whether idols or other incentives to departure from truth and right. Septuagint, . “and the ungodly shall be weak;” Vulgate, et ruinae impiorum erunt. These versions seem to have missed the point. I will cut off man. It is on man’s account that this judgment is sent a truth which the prophet enforces by reiteration.
Zep 1:4-6
3. The judgment will fall especially upon Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatry.
Zep 1:4
I will also stretch out mine hand. This expression is used when God is about to do great things or inflict notable punishment (see Exo 3:20; Exo 15:12; Deu 4:34; Isa 5:25; Jer 51:25, etc.). Judah. In so far as Judah was rebellious and wicked, it should incur the judicial punishment. Judgment was to begin at the house of God (1Pe 4:17), the sin of the chosen people being more heinous than that of heathens. Hence it is added, upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, because, having in their very midst the temple of God, with its services and priests, they ought especially to have abhorred idolatry and maintained the true faith. The remnant of Baal; i.e. the last vestige. One cannot argue from this expression that the reform was already carried so far that Baal worship had almost disappeared. The next verse shows that idolatry still flourished; but the term implies merely that God would exterminate it so entirely that no trace of it should remain. The LXX. has, “the names of Baal,” (Hos 2:17). (For Josiah’s reform of these iniquities, see 2Ki 23:4, etc.) The name of the Chemarims (Chemarim). The word means “black-robed,” and is applied to the idolatrous priests whom the kings bad appointed to conduct worship in high places (2Ki 23:5; Hos 10:5). “The name,” says Dr. Pussy, “is probably the Syriac name of ‘priest,’ used in Holy Scripture of idolatrous priests, because the Syrians were idolaters” Not only shall the persons of these priests be cut off, but their very name and memory shall vanish (Zec 13:2). With the priests (kohanim). Together with the legitimate priests who had corrupted the worship of Jehovah (Zep 3:4; Jer 2:8; Eze 8:11).
Zep 1:5
That worship the host of heaven upon the house tops. In this verse two classes of fame worshippers are mentioned, viz. star worshippers, and waverers. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars was a very ancient form of error, the heavenly bodies being regarded as the representatives of the powers of nature and the originators of events on earth (see Deu 4:19; Deu 17:3; Job 31:26, Job 31:27; 2Ki 17:16). It was especially prevalent in the time of Manasseh (2Ki 21:3), On the flat roofs of the houses, which were used as places of meditation, recreation, or conference (comp. Jos 2:6; 1Sa 9:25; 2Sa 11:2; Act 10:9), they erected altars for family worship of the heavenly bodies. Here they both burned incense (Jer 19:13) and offered animal sacrifices (2Ki 23:12). “In Syrian cities,” says Dr. Thomson, “the roofs are a great comfort. The ordinary houses have no other place where the inmates, can either see the sun, smell the air, dry their clothes, set out their flower pots, or do numberless other things essential to their health and comfort. During a large part of the year the roof is the most agreeable place about the establishment, especially in the morning and evening. There multitudes sleep during the summer”. Them that worship and that, etc.; rather, the worshippers who, etc. These were people who endeavoured to blend the worship of God with that of Baal, or halted between two opinions (1Ki 18:21). Swear by the Lord; rather, swear to the Lord; i.e. bind themselves by oath to him, and at the same time swear by Malcham; swear by their king, Baal, or Moloch; call upon him as god. Septuagint, , “by their king.” But it is, perhaps, best to retain the name untranslated, in which ease it would be the appellation of the god Moloch, who could hardly be omitted in enumerating the objects of idolatrous worship (see Jer 49:1, Jer 49:3; and notes on Amo 1:15; Amo 5:26).
Zep 1:6
Them that are turned back from the Lord. This is a third class, vie. apostates and open despisers. Those who follow him no more, renegades who have left his service. The Vulgate reproduces the original by, qui avertuntur de post tergum Domini. Those that have not sought the Lord. These are the indifferent, who do.not trouble themselves about religion. The chief classes mentioned in these two verses are three, viz. the open idolaters, the syncretists who mingled the worship of Baal with that of Jehovah, and those who despised religion altogether.
Zep 1:7-13
4. The judgment is described with regard to those whom it will affect, vie. the princes, the traders, the irreligious and profligate.
Zep 1:7
This judgment, so fearful, is near at hand, and must needs occasion the utmost terror and dismay. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God; literally, Hush, from the face of the Lord Jehovah! ; silete a facie Domini Dei (Vulgate). The expression is like Hab 2:20. The reason of this silent awe is next given. For the day of the Lord is at hand. The day of judgment is thus called (Joe 1:15; Isa 13:6; Amo 5:18, Amo 5:20; Oba 1:15). The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. The words are from Isa 34:6 (comp. Jer 46:10; Eze 39:17, Eze 39:19). The sacrifice is the guilty Jewish nation. The punishment of the wicked is regarded as a satisfaction offered to the Divine justice. He hath bid his guests; he hath consecrated his called. The “called ones” are the strange nations whom God summons to execute his vengeance. Septuagint, . These are said to be “sanctified,” as if engaged in a holy war, when summoned to punish those who had become as heathen. So those who are called to chastise Babylon are termed “my sanctified ones” (Isa 13:3), as being the instruments appointed and set apart to carry out this purpose (comp. Jer 22:7; Jer 51:27, Jer 51:28; Mic 3:5). The particular agents intended are not specified by the prophet, whose mission was not directed to any such definition. He has to speak generally of the judgment to come, not of those whom God should employ to inflict it. We know from other sources that the Chaldeans are meant, they or the Assyrians being always announced as the executors of God’s vengeance on his rebellions people. The notion, adopted by Ewald, Hitzig, and others, that the prophet refers to some supposed invasion of Scythians which took place about this time, would never have been started had not such authors desired to eliminate the predictive element from prophetic utterances. The vague account of Herod; 1:105 gives no support to the assertion that the Scythians invaded Palestine in Josiah’s reign; nor is there a trace of any knowledge of such irruption in Zephaniah or Jeremiah (see Introduction, I.).
Zep 1:8
The prophet names the three classes of people who shall be smitten in this judgment. First, the princes. In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice (see note on ver. 7). God is speaking; so the name of the Lord is employed instead of the pronoun (comp. Lam 3:66). I will punish; literally, visit upon (ver. 12; Amo 3:14). The princes. The heads of tribes and families, nobles and magistrates. The king’s children (sons); Septuagint, , “the house of the king.” The royal family, not specially the sons of Josiah, who, if they were then in existence, must have been mere children, but princes of the royal house. The reference may be particularly to the sons of the king reigning when the judgment fell (see 2Ki 25:7). The king himself is not mentioned as subject to the judgment, inasmuch as he was pious and obedient (2Ch 34:27, etc.). In the mention of these “children” Keil finds proof of the late origin of the prophecy. Such as are clothed with strange apparel. This clause must represent the sin for which the princes are “visited.” “Strange” apparel means “foreign” apparel, and this implied foreign manners and habits. The Israelites were reminded by their very dress that they were a peculiar people, consecrated to God’s service (Num 15:37, etc.; Deu 22:12). These nobles, however, assumed the dress of the Egyptians and other nations with which they came in contact, and, despising their own national customs, copied the manners and vices of foreigners (comp. Isa 3:16-24; Eze 20:32; 1 Macc. 1:11-15).
Zep 1:9
Those that leap on (over) the threshold. These are the retainers of the princes, etc; named in ver. 8. There is no allusion to the circumstance of the priests of Dagon abstaining from treading on the threshold of their temple in consequence of what happened to the idol at Ashdod (1Sa 5:5). It is inconceivable that this merely local custom, which demonstrated the impotence of the false god, should hare been imported into Judah. where, indeed, the worship of Dagon seems never to have made any way. The following clause explains the meaning which the Latin version intimates, Omnem qui arroganter ingreditur super limen all those who, carrying out their masters’ wishes, violently invade the houses of others and pillage them of their contents. The expression, “to leap over the threshold,” seems to have been a common term for burglary and stealing with violence. Which fill their masters’ houses. These retainers plunder and steal in order that they may increase their masters’ treasures. The king (though not Josiah) may be meant, the plural being the plural of majesty, or the idol temples. The LXX; followed by Jerome, renders, “who fill the house of the Lord their God.” This is plainly erroneous, as there is no question here about the temple at Jerusalem. Violence and deceit; i.e. the fruits of, what they have extorted by, violence and fraud (Jer 5:27).
Zep 1:10
The second class which shall be smitten, viz. the traders and usurers, the enemy being represented as breaking in upon the localities where these persons resided. The fish gate. This is generally supposed to have been in the north wall of the city towards its eastern extremity, and to have been so called because through it were brought the fish from the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, and there was a fish market in its immediate neighbourhood (see Neh 3:3; Neh 12:39; 2Ch 33:14). It was probably on this side that the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem, us Zedekiah seems to have escaped from the south (Jer 39:4). The LXX. has, , which Jerome notes as a mistake. From the second district, the lower city upon the hill Acra, to the north of the old town, Zion. This is so called, according to one rendering, in 2Ki 22:14, and Neh 11:9. A great crashing. Not merely the crash of falling buildings, but the cry of men when a city is taken and the inhabitants are put to the sword. The hills on which the greater part of the city was built. Keil thinks that the hills surrounding the lower city are meant, viz. Bezetha, Gareb, etc; as the hearer of the cry is supposed to be on Zion.
Zep 1:11
Maktesh; the Mortar; Septuagint, , “her that is broken down.” The word is found in Jdg 15:19 of a hollow place in a rock, and it is here used in the sense of “valley,” and probably refers to the Tyropoeum, or part of it, the depression that ran down the city, having Aera and Zion on its west side, and Moriah and Ophel on its east, and extended south as far as the pool of Siloam. It does not seem a very appropriate appellation for a lengthy valley like the Tyropceum, nor is there any trace of such a name being applied to it elsewhere. It may have been a name affixed to a certain locality where a bazaar was situated or certain special industries had their seat; or it may have been invented by Zephaniah to intimate the fate that awaited the evil merchants, that they should be, as it were, brayed in a mortar by their enemies. The merchant people; literally, people of Canaan. So Septuagint and Vulgate (comp. Hos 12:7; Hist. of Susannah 56; Zec 14:21). The iniquitous traders are called “people of Canaan,” because they acted like the heathens around them, especially the Phoenicians, who were unscrupulous and dishonest in their transactions. Are cut down; are silenced; Vulgate, conticuit (Isa 6:5; Hos 10:7). They that bear (are laden with) silver. Those who have amassed wealth by trade and usury. The LXX. has, “those who are elated with silver;” St. Jerome, involuti argento.
Zep 1:12
The third class which shall be smitten, viz. the profligate and riotous. I will search Jerusalem with candles (lights). No evil doer shall escape. The enemy whom God summons to execute his wrath shall leave no corner unsearched where the debauchees hide themselves (comp. Luk 15:8). Jerome and commentators after him refer to Josephus’s account of the last siege of Jerusalem for a parallel to these predicted proceedings of the Chaldeans. Here we read how princes and priests and chieftains were dragged from sewers, and pits, and caves, and tombs, where they had hidden themselves in fear of death, and were mercilessly slain wherever they were found (Josephus, ‘Bell. Jud.,’ 6:9). The men that are settled on their lees; i.e. confirmed, hardened, and inveterate in their evil habits. The metaphor is derived from old wine not racked off; which retains all its flavour and odour, and becomes thick and viscid (see Isa 25:6; Jer 48:11). The LXX. paraphrases, , which Jerome renders, qui contemnunt custodias suas. That say in their heart. They do not openly scoff at religion, but think within themselves these infidel thoughts. The Lord will not do good, ere. Just what God says of idols (Isa 41:23). These “fools” (Psa 14:1) deny God’s moral government of the world; they will not see the working of Divine providence in all that happens, but, secure and careless in their worldly prosperity, they assign all events to chance or natural law, placing Jehovah in the same category as the idols worshipped by heathens (comp. Job 22:12, etc.; Psa 10:4, etc.; Psa 94:7).
Zep 1:13
Their goods; literally, their strength; their wealth in which they trusted shall become the prey of the enemy, and thus they shall learn that God ruleth in the affairs of men. They shall also build houses, etc. They shall prove in their own case the reality of the punishment threatened in the Law (Lev 26:32, etc.; Deu 28:30, Deu 28:39; comp. Amo 5:11; Mic 6:15).
Zep 1:14-18
5. To arouse the self-confident sinners, the prophet here enlarges upon the near approach and terrible nature of this coming judgment.
Zep 1:14
Having signified the victims of the judgment, Zephaniah recurs to what he had said in ver. 7, and enforces upon his hearers its near approach. The great day of the Lord (Joe 2:1, Joe 2:11). Even the voice of the day of the Lord. The day is so close at hand, that the sound of its coming can be heard. Some translate, “Hark! the day of Jehovah.” The mighty man shall cry (crieth) there bitterly. There, on the battlefield, the hero is panic-stricken, and cries out for fear. The Greek and Latin Versions connect “bitter” with the former clause. Thus the Vulgate, Vox dies Domini amara; Septuagint, , “The voice of the day of the Lord is made bitter and harsh.”
Zep 1:15
That day is a day of wrath; Vulgate, Dies irae, dies illa, words which form the commencement of the famous hymn. The better to describe the terrible nature of the judgment, the prophet crowds together all available expressions of terror and calamity. First, it is a day when God’s anger shall blaze forth (Isa 9:18). Of trouble and distress. In its effects upon sinners (Job 15:24). Of wasteness and desolation. As if things returned to the primeval chaos (Gen 1:2; comp. Job 30:3; Job 38:27, where there is a similar combination; see note on Nah 2:10). Of darkness and gloominess (Joe 2:2; Amo 5:18, Amo 5:20). Of clouds and thick darkness (Deu 4:11; comp. Hab 3:11).
Zep 1:16
A day of the trumpet and alarm. “Alarm” means “the sound of alarm.” Among the Jews trumpets were used to announce the festivals (Num 29:1), and to give the signal for battle or of the approach of an enemy (Jer 4:5, Jer 4:19; Eze 33:4). Here it is the signal of destruction (Amo 2:2). The fenced cities. The strongest fortresses shall feel the irresistible attack (Mic 5:11). The high towers. These are the turrets built at the angles of the walls for the better defence of the city, and to annoy the besiegers (Zep 3:6). LXX; , “upon the lofty angles;” Vulgate, super angulos excelsos. Others take the words to mean “the battlements” on the walls. Henderson quotes Taeitus’s description of the later walls of Jerusalem, “Duos colles immensum editos claudebant muri per artem obliqui aut introrsus sinuati, ut latera oppugnantium ad ictus patescerent” (‘Hist.,’ 5.11).
Zep 1:17
In this storming of cities and universal ruin, sinners shall perish without hope. I will bring distress upon men. I will drive them into the utmost straits (comp. Deu 28:52, Deu 28:53). They shall walk like blind men. Not knowing where they go in their terror and confusion, seeking a way of escape and finding none (see Deu 28:29, on which this passage is founded; comp. Job 5:14; Isa 59:10). Because they have sinned, as shown in vers. 4-12. Their blood shall be poured out as dust. The point of comparison is rather in the worthlessness than in the abundance of dust. Bloodshed is as little regarded as dust that is trodden under foot. The comparison with water is found elsewhere (cf. Psa 79:3). Their flesh as the dung. The verb from the preceding clause may be taken by zeuguna with this clause; then the meaning is that their dead bodies are left unburied to rot on the ground (Jer 9:22). Or the substantive verb may be supplied (comp. Job 20:7).
Zep 1:18
Neither their silver, etc. They cannot bribe this enemy; their wealth cannot win for them immunity (Isa 13:17; Eze 7:19). The fire of his jealousy (Zep 3:8). The whole earth (for, as we have seen in Zep 1:2, Zep 1:3, the judgment is universal) shall be punished in the wrath of the Lord, who will not have the honour which is due to him given to any other. He shall make even a speedy riddance; more closely, he shall make an end, yea, a speedy end (comp. Nah 1:8; Isa 10:23, which our text imitates). (For the sudden and unexpected arrival of the day of the Lord, see Luk 17:26, etc.)
HOMILETICS.
Zep 1:1-3. – The prophet and his times.
I. HIS PEDIGREE. (Zep 1:1.) This is the solitary instance in which the lineage of a prophet is traced back in Scripture four generations. The reason would seem to be in order to indicate his relationship to Hezekiah, the pious King of Judah. Note:
1. The honour connected with a pious ancestry.
2. The perpetuity of the influence of a good life.
II. HIS AUTHORITY. This was not derived from his royal descent, but from his being under the inspiration of the Almighty. “The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah” (ver. 1). The words of those high in rank are often invested with a value they do not intrinsically possess, but the utterances of this prince of Judah claim our regard as the words of one taught by the Spirit of God.
III. HIS AGE. He prophesied “in the days of Josiah the son of Anion, King of Judah” (ver. 1). Unhappily, the reforms instituted by the good Hezekiah had not been sustained during the succeeding reigns, so that the nation, both politically and spiritually, had relapsed into a thoroughly corrupt state by the time that the boy-king Josiah came to the throne. Consecrated from early life to the service of the true God, the youthful monarch devoted the energies of his early manhood to the rooting out of idolatry from his land, and to the restoration and re-establishment of the temple and its services. Zephaniah, doubtless, prophesied shortly before this work of reformation commenced, and the influence of his faithful ministry would be helpful to the royal reformer in carrying out his noble work.
IV. THE CHARACTER OF THE MESSAGE WITH WHICH HE WAS DIVINELY ENTRUSTED, This was:
1. Very dark. He was, indeed, a messenger of judgment; the solemn responsibility devolved upon him of announcing “the terrors of the Lord” (vers. 2, 3). The anger of the Lord was kindled against Judah, and though to be delayed until Josiah should be gathered to his rest, it must at length fall (2Ki 22:8-20; 2Ki 23:21-27; 2Ch 34:8-33; 2Ch 35:1-19).
2. Very comprehensive. His predictions of judgment were not limited to Judah, but were directed also against heathen nations Philistia, Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria (Zep 2:1-15.).
3. Yet withal not lacking encouragement; for whilst he told of impending judgment, he called to repentance, unfolded the mercy of the Most High, and indicated how that even the darkest events impending would be overruled for the well being of the race.
Zep 1:4, Zep 1:5. – A corrupt priesthood and its pernicious influence.
The work of reformation carried on by Hezekiah was unquestionably great, yet it cannot be correctly described as having been complete. The weeds of idolatry were extensively destroyed by him, yet many roots remained, and, springing up, bore a fresh harvest of evil in the succeeding reigns, so that the godly Josiah found himself confronted with a powerful remnant of idolatry. In dealing with this he must have been materially assisted by the bold denunciations of Zephaniah; and these were fittingly directed first of all against the corrupt priesthood (ver. 4). We have here
I. AN EXALTED OFFICE. That of the priest. The Jewish priesthood was of Divine appointment, chosen and set apart by God to the most sacred duties, and the whole being typical of the character and mission of the great High Priest who was in the fulness of time to appear. And whilst in his work these functions received their consummation, and the Aaronic priesthood passed away, yet Christ when he ascended upon high “gave gifts unto men,” etc. (Eph 4:11-13). The work of the ministry is scriptural, noble, honourable. Those divinely called to it have to teach the truth of God, to seek to win men to righteousness and heaven, to lead worshippers to the very throne of the Eternal, to direct the activities of the Church, and to shepherd the flock of Christ. The work is “a good work” (1Ti 3:1), and faithfully to do it is to secure present and eternal honour.
II. THEIR HIGH OFFICE CORRUPTED. Those here styled “the Chemarims” were Jewish priests, some of whom were of the tribe of Levi, and others chosen from the lowest of the people, who sold themselves to the faithless kings of Judah, and at their bidding offered polluted rites at the altar of God, and joined with the heathen priests in serving the altars of Baal (2Ki 23:5; Hos 10:5). The highest and holiest functions may still be perverted. This is the case when motives other than those of love to God and to the souls of men impel to engaging in ministerial service, or when in rendering such service any compromise is made with error and sin.
III. THE PERNICIOUS INFLUENCE RESULTING FROM SUCH CORRUPTION, “Like priests, like people.” Hence, immediately following the allusion to the corrupt priesthood, reference is made to the people as worshipping the host of heaven upon the house tops (ver. 5). Luther says, “The chemarim produced an erroneous opinion among the people that they were of all others the most assiduous in religion and Divine worship,” and if so, their influence over the people would be proportionately increased through their zeal, and no wonder that, following these false guides, idolatry and irreligion so widely prevailed in the land. A faithless and disloyal ministry in any age must prove a blight and a curse.
IV. THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS PRONOUNCED AGAINST THESE FAITHLESS ONES AND THEIR ADHERENTS. Their followers should be visited with retribution, whilst as to these false leaders, they should be “cut off,” and their very name be blotted out. Their fate speaks silently and solemnly to all who claim to be ministers of God. His charge to all such is, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman,” etc. (Eze 2:1-10 :17-21), and this is his promise attached to fidelity, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10).
Zep 1:5. – Divided service.
“That worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.” It is not two distinct classes of persons that are here referred to, but one and the same class. The allusion is to such as sought to be identified both with the service of God and the service of Malcham. It is an example of divided service that is here presented to us, an illustration of men attempting that which the great Teacher in a later age declared to be altogether impracticable, even to serve two masters.
I. AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK ATTEMPTED, AND RESULTING IN FAILURE AND SHAME.
1. The task, Malcham, or Malkam, or “king,” was a term used for Baal, and who is thus described on the Phoenician inscriptions. The times being corrupt, and idolatry being popular in the land, there were those who, from considerations of policy and interest doubtless, attempted to combine the worship of Jehovah and that of Baal, or Malcham. The same spirit prevails still; men desire to serve both God and mammon,’and too much resemble those who were “willing to serve God so that they did not offend the devil.”
2. The task is an impossible one; it cancel be accomplished,
(1) Scripture proclaims this to be an impossibility (Jos 24:19-25; 1Sa 7:3; 1Ki 18:21; Eze 20:39).
(2) Proverbial sayings of different nations recognize this. “Lay not two saddles on one horse;” “A true subject serves not two sovereigns;” “Ye cannot go east and west at the same time.”
(3) Men do not attempt this in the ordinary affairs of life, but concentrate their energies upon one purpose.
(4) One plain reason accounts for the impossibility, viz. the service of God and that of Malcham, or mammon, or worldliness, are so thoroughly opposite in their nature that there can be no union. “You cannot be heavenly and worldly too. If I am heavenly I sanctify the world, and if I am worldly I debase the heavenly. You are therefore one of two things, and there is no mixture in your character.”
3. To attempt it can only result in defeat and disgrace. They who sought to worship God and Malcham were to be “cut off.” Their conduct met with the Divine displeasure, and was followed by such manifestations of his disapproval as filled them with confusion and shame. Other instances: Meroz (Jdg 5:23); the young ruler (Mat 19:22); Peter in the high priest’s hall (Mat 26:75).
II. A MORE EXCELLENT COURSE OF ACTION.
1. Weigh well the respective claims of God and of Malcham, Christ and mammon. This is the way in which men wisely act in reference to temporal things, and they should also act thus in reference to religion.
2. Yield yourself faithfully, wholly, and irrevocably to the master whose claim you feel to be the strongest. “If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Multitudes, as they have thus reflected upon the claims of Christ, have felt these to be paramount; as they have thought of his bright and beautiful teaching, his wonderful, self-sacrificing human life, and as, gathering at Calvary, they have contemplated his humiliation unto death, they have been constrained to acknowledge his undoubted right to their loving confidence and entire service, and, yielding themselves up to him without reservation, have found in so doing happiness and peace.
Zep 1:6. – The sin of apostasy.
“And them that are turned back from the Lord.” Some biblical expositors regard the whole of this verse as referring to one class, even to such as are utterly indifferent and unconcerned in reference to God’s claims; whilst other commentators regard this class as referred to in the latter part of the verse, and view the expression, “And them that are turned back from the Lord” as an allusion to those who, having professed loyalty to God and his truth, had allowed themselves to be drawn away and to walk no more with him. Concerning this sin of apostasy, note
I. THE CAUSES WHICH HAVE RESULTED IN MEN FALLING INTO THIS SIN.
1. Temporal success. Favourable progress in the affairs of this life has proved the ruin of many spiritually. They have set their hearts upon their treasures, and have bowed down before the golden image (Deu 32:15)
2. Temporal adversity. “The cares of life, as well as “the deceitfulness of riches,” will often choke the Word. The very troubles which should unite men to God by a closer bond (for if all else fail, he abides) have been permitted to drive them away from the Source of consolation and help.
3. Mental difficulties. Forgetful that Truth is boundless and immeasurable, and that after the most earnest research there must remain profound depths yet to be explored, the inquirer has wanted to understand fully now, and, failing in this, has, through pride of intellect, brought himself into a state of mental unsettledness, so that even the plainly declared truths of revelation have lost their charm to him, and he has taken shelter in unbelief.
4. Worldliness; by which term is meant love of the untrue and unsubstantial; regard only for the outward, the transient, the unreal; the world becoming invested with ruling power over the man, instead of the man reigning over it. So Paul wrote of Demas, that he had yielded here (2Ti 4:10).
II. THE INTENSE SADNESS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS COURSE OF ACTION,
1. It involves the violation of the most solemn and sacred vows.
2. It is attended by separation from the most holy and helpful associations.
3. It hinders the progress of the cause of God.
4. It grieves and dishonours the Lord.
III. THE SPIRIT WHICH SHOULD BE CHERISHED BY THE FAITHFUL IN REFERENCE TO THOSE THAT ARE TURNED BACK FROM THE LORD.
1. There must be no palliation of their sin. Zephaniah uttered burning words of condemnation with reference to these transgressors, and we shall not really help such by making light of their sin.
2. Yet we should earnestly seek their recovery. We should endeavour by kindness and gentleness to restore these erring ones. Although they may be darkly stained by sin, they are still our brethren. Whilst they have stumbled and fallen in the path, it is in very weakness that we ourselves have trodden it. The tender, loving word may perchance win them back to holiness and to God. In voyaging, some vessels are completely lost, they go down through the storm, and utterly perish; others arrive at the port, but with masts broken and sails torn through battling with wind and wave; whilst others outride every storm, and with full sail enter the destined haven. Thus was it, one has pointed out, with the three associates of St. Paul who are specially referred to in 2Ti 4:1-22.; and thus is it in the spiritual life. Demas, wrecked; Mark, overpowered by adverse gales and seemingly crushed, yet rising again and reaching the harbour at length in safety; but Luke, “the beloved physician,” holding peacefully and tranquilly on his course all through, and having ministered to him an abundant entrance to the heavenly kingdom. May our course be as the last named of these disciples, unmarked either by failure or even by temporary estrangement, but being steadfast and immovable! May no place be found by us amongst those “that have turned themselves back from following after the Lord”! May we, escaping the perils of the sea of life all its shoals and quicksands reach at last the haven of eternal rest and felicity!
Zep 1:6. – The sin of indifference.
“And those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him.” Various classes of transgressors are alluded to in these verses (vers. 4-6). The corrupt priests and their followers, those dividing their allegiance between God and Baal, the backsliders in heart, are all spoken of in brief and forcible sentences. And now, in the expression before us, allusion is made to the unconcerned and indifferent, and who are described as “those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him.” This class is, in some respects, the most hopeless of all. An idolater is interested in worship, and may become convinced of his folly in rendering this to “the work of his own hands.” The divided heart is partially directed to God, and may be won over to complete loyalty. The backslider may remember the joys he has forfeited, and, by the sacred memories of the past, which even his estrangement cannot obliterate, may be constrained to return unto the Lord. But in proportion as a man is callous and indifferent to the claims of God, he places himself outside the circle within which holy and gracious influences operate. Less fear need be cherished of the pernicious influence of the scepticism of the age than of the fatality attendant upon the spirit of indifferentism to God and his claims which so widely prevails. Observe
I. THE PREVALENCE OF THIS SPIRIT MAY BE ACCOUNTED FOR.
1. The reason of it is to be found in the fact of possession. Nothing is more calculated to lead a man to be indifferent in reference to higher claims than to find property increasing in his hands. The consciousness of independence, the sense of self-sufficiency, and the feeling of comfort, all tend to lead him to think and act as though he had “need of nothing.” “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many.” One thus invited said, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused” (Luk 14:16-18). See. well to it, ye who have secured the possessions of earth, that ye do not, through the influence of these material things, come short of participation in the true festal joys.
2. Another reason lies in the fact of familiarity. Is it not so that our very familiarity with anything is likely to lead us in a sense to be somewhat indifferent to it? A walk may appear long, and may be long; but take it frequently, and the distance will appear to lessen, and in time it will cease to affect you. View constantly the scenery of some charming dale, and however much of quiet enjoyment you will get out of it perpetually if you are a lover of natural beauty, yet you will not be so enthusiastic as a stranger who gazes upon it for the first time. And much of the prevailing indifference concerning God and his truth may be traced to this cause. When King Clovis heard for the first time the story of Calvary, it is said he grew excited, and cried out, “I wish I’d been there with my Franks; I’d soon have settled those Jews!” The novelty charmed the rude king; but men all around us are so familiar with the Story that they are not moved thus; and multitudes are so unconcerned respecting these great themes as that they may be described as “those who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him,”
3. This indifference may also be traced to custom. The power of habit is very strong. Men became confirmed in their ways (Jer 13:23).
II. THEY WHO CHERISH THIS SPIRIT RUN THE RISK OF INCURRING INFINITE LOSS. Loss may be incurred unintentionally and through indifference and neglect. You neglect to insure your property, and perchance a fire breaks out and destroys it, and yon find yourself thrown back for years to come; or you neglect your health and fail to heed the first symptoms of disease, and it may end in the disease gaining too firm a hold for it ever to be eradicated; and so spiritual and eternal honour may be forfeited, not wilfully, but through indifference and unconcern.
III. HENCE THE SUPREME VALUE OF THE PRESENT TIME WITH ITS OPPORTUNITIES. Our great dramatist has it
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
And it is so that there is a tide in the spiritual affairs of men. Human feelings, sentiments, desires, ebb and flow like the sea; and there are seasons in which this tide sets towards piety; and such a season, if only improved, “is the accepted time,” “the day of salvation.” Use it, and it shall not be said that you belong to those “that have not sought the Lord,” etc. (ver. 6).
Zep 1:7-18. – The day of the Lord.
The reader of this brief book of Scripture, forming his conclusions from this opening chapter exclusively, is likely to get a very false impression respecting the spirit and views of the writer. The chapter deals entirely with sin and its punishment, and, taken alone and apart, conveys undoubtedly a very strong conviction as to the terribleness and severity of God. The seer seems to linger in thought upon the coming judgments, and to reiterate these in every possible form, and even to exult in the retributions which should at length fall upon the sinful nation. His “song” appears to be altogether “of judgment.” That we may rightly estimate, however, his spirit and teaching, we should remember:
1. That the great and solemn fact of Divine retribution for sin ought not to be ignored. Whatever theory may be held respecting the doom and destiny of the impenitent, the fact remains stamped on every page of the volume of revelation, in Old and New Testament alike, that sin shall result in chastisement, that man shall reap as he sows. The prophet in this respect is in perfect agreement with all the Bible writers.
2. That the prevailing corruption of his times necessitated a strong insistance, on the part of the prophets, upon the approaching judgments on account of national transgression; and this also was in harmony with the character of the dispensation.
3. That whilst sternly declaring the Divine punishment to fall upon the nation because of its sinfulness, Zephaniah also, as he proceeded, dwelt very frequently upon the Divine intention to purify through chastisement, and pointed out the gracious purpose of the Most High by means of coming tribulations to sanctify and save. His “song” was “of mercy” as well as “of judgment.” Here, however (vers. 7-18), he dwells specially upon the Divine judgments, and points to “the great and notable day of the Lord,” “the day of vengeance of our God.” These judgments he sets forth
I. IN STRIKING SYMBOL. (Verse 7.) Sacrifice was well understood in Jerusalem. Offerings were offered on Jewish altars to the true God, and, when the people had become corrupt, also to Baal. Jehovah now declared by his holy prophet that the people, having proved faithless, should themselves be sacrificed; they should be the victims, and the heathen who should effect their overthrow would, in so doing, be consecrated to his service. This symbol is used also in the same sense by other prophets (Isa 34:6; Jer 46:10; Eze 39:17).
II. IN VIVID DESCRIPTION. (Verses 10-18.) The prophet witnesses in imagination, and describes with realistic power, the coming siege and destruction of the city by the Chaldeans. He sees “the fish gate” (ver. 10), the weakest part, assaulted, and hears a loud cry (ver. 10), telling that it has fallen, and that the invaders have gained admission; whilst “the sound of wailing” coming from the inhabitants of the lower part of the city (“the second,” ver. 10) intimates that, having gained an entrance, the foe is carrying on the work of destruction. “A great crashing from the hills” (ver. 10) indicates that the invaders, with their engines of war, are striking against the walls and forts. And as the work of invasion proceeds, he marks how it becomes concentrated upon the mercantile part of the city, “El-Wad,” or “The Valley” (called by Zephaniah “Maktesh,” or “The Mortar,” ver. 11); the merchants being destroyed, their “silver” and “their goods” becoming “a booty;” their houses rendered a desolation, and their vineyards laid waste (vers. 11, 13).
III. IN MOURNFUL SONG. (Verses 14-18.) Concerning this song it has been well said, “There are no grander verses, none more sombre and tragic, none in which terror is more picturesque, in the literature of the world. They call for little comment. They are to be felt rather than critically analyzed and explained” (Cox, in ‘Bible Educator,’ vol. 2:257). The expression, “the day of the Lord,” so frequently used in this chapter, is employed in the New Testament with reference to the final judgment (Jud 1:6). That day will be a day of wrath to those who persist in working unrighteousness (Rom 2:8, Rom 2:9). “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2Co 5:11); “Be ye reconciled to God” (2Co 5:20).
Zep 1:8, Zep 1:9. – No respect of persons.
I. SOCIETY IS COMPOSED OF VARIOUS GRADES. There are royal personages, “the princes” and “the king’s children” (ver. 8); there are “the merchant people” (ver. 11); there are masters and servants (ver. 9); there are nobles in affluence, who can clothe themselves with “strange apparel” (ver. 8); and there are the poor and needy. Nor would it be advantageous to society to break down these distinctions. An equal division of wealth and rank would be found both impracticable and undesirable. What is needed is the cultivation, amongst all sections of society, of the spirit of regard and good will. If the injunctions of God’s Word were heeded, wrong doing would cease, the ruler would not oppress the subject, the employer would not act unjustly towards the employed, nor the employed refuse to abide by just regulations. It is not by breaking down the social distinctions of society that the existing wrongs are to be redressed, but by a wider diffusion amongst all classes of the pure teachings of the religion of peace and love.
II. IS EACH OF THESE GRADES THE WORKING OF EVIL MAY BE TRACED. In vers. 8 and 9 this is indicated. Princes, nobles, retainers, menials, alike corrupted their way. Pride in bearing and in attire, the emulating of the vices of the heathen, injustice and wrong, “violence and deceit,” prevailed amongst all classes. Sin is a disease, the contagious influence of which spreads through society at large, causing sickliness and ending in moral death. It has been fittingly compared to the Egyptian plague of frogs, for as these coming up from the river afflicted king, nobles, magicians, and people alike, so sin in its varied forms and hurtful influence has been felt by all.
III. THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF SIN WILL BE RIGHTEOUSLY AWARDED AND WITHOUT PARTIALITY. Princes, nobles, merchants, servants, will be reckoned with according to their works (vers. 8, 9). With God there is “no respect of persons.” Here social position and influence screen wrong doers at times from reaping the just consequences of their evil doing. However justly the administrators of human law may desire to act, and to remove the reproach that “there is one law for the rich and another for the poor,” the fact remains that the former class, when pursued by the baud of justice, can command assistance such as is denied to the latter, and the employment of which has often moderated the sentence inflicted. But the “righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness,” will “give to every man according as his work shall be.”
Zep 1:12. – Searching Jerusalem with candles.
Jerusalem here stands for the nation at large. The whole land was corrupt and was to fall, and the prophet singles out Jerusalem. as being the centre of influence, but his remarks apply to the people generally. We have suggested here
I. PROSPERITY IN WORLDLY AFFAIRS RESULTING IN FALSE SECURITY. Success in secular matters is to be desired. Rightly improved, such prosperity becomes a source of good to its possessors, and through them to their fellow men. The danger lies in the temptation to pride and self-sufficiency, leading men to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think.” In proportion as men grow rich are they in peril of feeling themselves to be “full,” and to “have need of nothing.”
II. FALSE SECURITY LEADING TO INDIFFERENCE TO GOD AND HIS CLAIMS. Being “at ease,” “their eyes standing out with fatness,” “having more than heart could wish,” they “lightly esteem” the Lord and ignore his Claims. They are not atheists in theory, but they are so in practice; they do not trouble to deny the Divine existence, but they live in total disregard of him to whom they are indebted for all that they possess; they say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil” (ver. 12).
III. INDIFFERENCE TO GOD AND HIS CLAIMS FOLLOWED BY MORAL CORRUPTION AND INIQUITY. Those acting thus are compared to wine that is settled on its lees. “The lees are the refuse of the wine, yet stored up with it, and the wine, unremoved, rests as it were upon them. So do men of ease rest in things defiled and defiling.” Taking this course, Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem had become corrupt and full of iniquity.
IV. MORAL CORRUPTION AND INIQUITY ABOUT TO BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT THROUGH THE DIVINE SCRUTINY. “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles” (ver. 12). In the day of terrors drawing near, “he would go through the city, making diligent search, trying house by house, man by man. As the vintner goes through his cellar, torch in hand; or as the head of the household, taper in hand, searches every nook and corner of his house before Passover, lest any morsel of leaven should be hidden in it; so Jehovah would search Jerusalem with candles, hunting the evil out of every dark nook in which they have concealed themselves, suffering none to escape.”
V. INIQUITY THUS DIVINELY REVEALED WILL ASSUREDLY BE FOLLOWED BY DIVINE RETRIBUTION. “And I will punish,” etc. (ver. 12). Sin cannot go unpunished. The Divine revelation of sin is with a view to this retribution, and serves to vindicate the rectitude of the Most High.
Learn:
1. To guard against the spirit of self-sufficiency and worldliness engendered of ease and luxury.
2. To scrutinize your own conduct, using faithfully with a view to this the torch of
(1) conscience,
(2) of God’s holy Word,
(3) and of the perfect example presented in the life of “the Man Christ Jesus.”
3. To pray earnestly for deliverance from all that is evil, and to be led into right paths, and so to be preserved from being at last condemned with the world. “Search me, O God, and know my heart,” etc. (Psa 139:23, Psa 139:24).
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW
Zep 1:1-6. – A prophet of doom.
I. MEANING OF HIS NAME. Zephaniah, “One whom Jehovah hides.” Hiding in the day of calamity a blessing promised to them that fear Go(Psa 31:19, Psa 31:20), who are therefore styled God’s hidden ones (Psa 83:4), and may confidently reckon upon God’s extending to them his protecting care in the midst of peril (Psa 27:5), yea, may even boldly flee unto him to hide them (Psa 143:9).
II. THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON. The scion of a kingly house, “the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah.” Mentioned here, not because they had been prophets, but probably because they had been celebrated persons, perhaps good men, these ancestors of Zephaniah three of them, like himself, with Jehovah in his name may have been introduced to show that the prophet, while descended from the good King Hezekiah, belonged to a different branch of the family from Manasseh and Amon; proceeded from the line in which Hezekiah’s goodness was transmitted, and thus had more than royal blood in his veins (not always an advantage) hereditary piety in his soul.
III. THE TIME OF HIS APPEARING.
1. The age fixed.
(1) “The days of Josiah, the son of Amen, King of Judah;” i.e. not before B.C. 640, when Josiah began to reign.
(2) Before the fall of Nineveh (Zep 2:13), which took place in B.C. 625.
(3) Probably after Josiah’s reformation had begun and before it was completed, since the prophet speaks of a “remnant of Baal” as existing at the time when he began to prophesy.
(4) Hence the date of Zephaniah may be placed between Josiah’s twelfth and eighteenth years, or between B.C. 628-622 (Hitzig, Keil, and Delitzsch), though by some interpreters (Ewald, Havernick, Pusey) it has been fixed earlier to wit, prior to Josiah’s twelfth year.
2. Its character declared.
(1) Generally, as regards the whole land of Judah, an age of widely spread, deeply seated, and well nigh incurable wickedness, of deplorable religious apostasy, of intensely debasing idolatry, of shameless hypocrisy, and of gross worldliness and indifference to Divine things (ver. 4).
(2) Particularly, as regards Jerusalem, an age of rebellion, disobedience, irreligion, prayerlessness, unbelief, violence, treachery, desecration of Jehovah’s sanctuary, insensibility to correction, and deep-seated immorality (Zep 3:1-4), with all of which the metropolis and its inhabitants were chargeable (of. Jer 5:1-31.; 6.).
IV. THE SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION. “The word of Jehovah.” Whether this came to him by direct revelation through voice (Jer 1:4) or vision (Isa 1:1; Isa 2:1), or indirectly by meditation on the moral and political condition of his countrymen as well as on the character of Jehovah and the laws of righteousness by which he governs the universe, is not said and need not be inquired into. It suffices to know that the prophet claimed for his message that it had been expressly given him put into his heart and mouth by Jehovah; while his predictions certainly were such as could not have been announced without the aid of Divine inspiration.
V. THE BURDEN OF HIS PROPHECY. Judgment.
1. Divine. The instrument is not mentioned; the first cause alone is placed in the foreground “I will utterly consume;” “I will cut off;” “I will stretch out mine hand.” The present day tendency is to set God in the background, if not to deny his agency altogether, alike in the production of material phenomena and in the superintendence of the social, moral, and political worlds, and to concentrate attention principally, if not exclusively, upon what are merely God’s instruments. The prophet’s way of looking at men and things accorded more with sound philosophy and true science, not to say sincere religion, than the practice prevailing in many so called enlightened circles today.
2. Universal. The judgment should embrace the wide earth. “All” “man and beast, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling blocks and the wicked” should be arraigned at Jehovah’s bar. If the language pointed not to a general judgment of men and nations at the end of the world, it at least emphasized the thought that no part of the world, no age or nation, could escape the ordeal of appearing before Heaven’s tribunal or elude the grasp of Divine retribution. The terms in which Jehovah declares his purpose to visit the wicked with destruction are such as to show that the complete fulfilment of the prophecy can only be reached in the great and terrible day of the Lord at the close of time (cf. Isa 24:1-23).
3. Particular. While enclosing the whole world in its sweep, the threatened judgment should fall with a special stroke upon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem as it were beginning with the house of God (1Pe 4:17). That the instruments of judgment would be the Scythians of whom Herodotus speaks as having invaded Upper and Higher Asia (Hitzig, Ewald, Bertheau), is not supported by sufficient evidence, whilst the fact that neither Herodotus nor the Old Testament reports any conquest of Jerusalem by them seems decisive against their being considered the executors of Jehovah’s wrath. The agents actually employed were the Chaldeans (2Ki 25:9), though it was not Zephaniah’s purpose to indicate by whom the judgments should be carried out.
4. Complete. Thorough going; upon both the world in general and Judah in particular. “I will utterly consume all from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.”
(1) As regards the world, the destruction should be as wide sweeping as had been that of the Deluge (Gen 7:21).
(2) As regards Judah and Jerusalem, the purgation as effective. “The remnant of Baal should be cut off,” i.e. root and branch, extirpated, or the work of extirpation, if already begun, should be carried forward till not a vestige of the hated idol worship should be seen.
(a) First, the idolatrous priests of both kinds should be swept away the Chemarim, or “the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem” (2Ki 23:5; Hos 10:5); and the priests, not “the idolatrous priests in the stricter sense” (Keil), but the unworthy priests of Jehovah who had either secretly or openly favoured the prevailing Baal worship (Fausset, Farrar).
(b) Next, the idol worshippers of both kinds should be cut off the thorough paced devotees of the heathen cultus, who worshipped the host of heaven upon the house tops, and the temporizers who tried to combine the worship of Jehovah with that of Baal, offering oaths of allegiance partly to Jehovah and partly to their king, i.e. Baal.
(c) And finally, apostates and open despisers of the Jehovah religion should be punished those who had turned back from serving Jehovah, and those who had never served him at all (ver. 6).
Learn:
1. The value of an honoured and pious ancestry.
2. The light the Word of God (contained in Scripture) can cast upon the
future.
3. The certainty of a day of judgment fur men and nations.
4. The impossibility of eluding the just judgment of God.
5. The inevitable ruin of them who will not serve God.
6. The impossibility of trying to serve God and idols.
7. The danger of neglecting religion hardly less than that of apostatizing from it. T.W.
Zep 1:7-13. – The day of the Lord’s sacrifice.
I. THE INTENDED VICTIMS.
1. Their persons catalogued.
(1) The royal household. Josiah exempted on account of his piety (2Ki 22:19, 2Ki 22:20; 2Ch 34:27, 2Ch 34:28) a testimony at once to Divine faithfulness and to the superior advantage of godliness (Psa 17:7; Psa 91:9, Psa 91:10; 2Pe 2:9; Rev 3:10). But included were the princes, or “the heads of the tribes and families who naturally filled the higher offices of state” (Keil); the king’s sons, either Josiah’s children, then quite young, Jehoiakim being six and Jehoahaz four years of age, and Zedekiah not yet born; or Josiah’s brothers and uncles who were also king’s sons; and the superior servants of the palace, who are probably referred to as those who “leap over the threshold and fill their masters’ house with violence and deceit” (ver. 9).
(2) The rich merchants of Jerusalem. Described by their residence, their occupation, their prosperity, and their doom. The part of the city in which they were located, named most likely by the prophet himself, Maktesh, or “The Mortar,” was “most probably the depression which ran down between Acra on the west, and Bezetha and Moriah on the cast, as far as the fountain of Shiloah” (Keil), “the cheese makers’ valley” of Josephus, styled by the present day inhabitants El-Wad, or “The Valley.” There they traded, lending money upon usury, and were called by the prophet “people of Canaan,” because of their resemblance to Canaanitish or Phoenician merchants. With such success had they carried on their business, that they were “laden with silver.” Yet were they doomed to be destroyed, ground to pieces, and bruised to death, by the Babylonian conquerors, like corn in a mortar when the pestle descendeth.
(3) The irreligious debauchees and rioters of the metropolis generally. Characterized as persons who had settled on their lees, and said in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” (For an explanation of the figure, consult Exposition, and see homily on ver. 12.) The language pointed to those whose material. prosperity had been their moral and religious ruin, who, having grown wealthy and luxurious, had also become atheistical at least in practice, saying in their hearts, and acting as if they believed, that either there was no God at all, or if there were, that he was perfectly indifferent to their characters and conduct a form of infidelity that has seldom lacked representatives among foolish and ungodly men (Job 22:12-14; Psa 10:4; Psa 14:1, Psa 94:6, Psa 94:7).
2. Their sins specified.
(1) Of the royal household, two wearing foreign clothes and leaping over the threshold. The former referred to the custom of copying the dress and with that the manners and luxuries of heathen peoples, and in particular, in Josiah’s time, of Egypt and Assyria, or Babylon. Among the Egyptians “the dress of the king was most gorgeous, consisting of robes of the most beautiful stuffs and the richest ornaments”. Nahum (Nah 2:3) describes the Assyrian soldiery as arrayed “in scarlet;” while Ezekiel (Eze 23:12, Eze 23:15) depicts the Assyriam warriors as “clothed most gorgeously,” and speaks of the Chaldeans as “girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads.” Of course, the sin against which the prophet inveighed was not the mere adoption of Egyptian, Assyrian, or Babylonian habiliments, but the inclination to look to and lean upon, to follow after and copy, these nations in their luxuries and idolatries rather than to remain faithful to Jehovah’s Law and worship, which the imitation of their dress revealed. Clothes, according [o Carlyle (‘Sartor Resartus,’ Eze 1:1), are “the vestural tissue which man’s soul wears as its outmost wrappage and overall, wherein his whole other tissues are included and screened, his whole faculties work, his whole self lives, moves, and has its being.” Hence a person’s dress is no mean indication of a person’s inner self. “Outward dress,” says Pusey, “always betokens the inward mind, and in its turn acts upon it.” In Isaiah’s tim, the Jerusalem ladies were distinguished for gay attire and wanton hearts (Isa 3:23). Peter (1Pe 3:3) exhorts Christian women to adorn themselves,” not with that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.” The latter of the two sins charged against the royal household, that of leaping over the threshold, is believed (Calvin, Keil, Ewald, Pusey, Farrar) to allude, not to the custom of leaping over the threshold of the king’s palace (Hitzig) in imitation of Dagoa’s priests, who, when they entered their idol’s temple in Ashdod, trode not upon its threshold (1Sa 5:5); but to the practice, observed probably by “dishonourable servants of the king,” of intruding into other people’s houses in order to deprive them of their property through violence and fraud, and with the spoils so obtained to enrich the king, whose dependants they were, and whose favour they desired to retain. Should this interpretation be correct, it suggests useful thoughts about the distribution of guilt, or the mutual responsibility of masters and servants for each other’s evil deeds. If the king’s servants merely carried out the orders of their royal master, they were no less criminal in Heaven’s sight than he; if they acted on their own motion, the king who profited by their plunder became a partner of their guilt.
(2) Of the merchants, also two avarice and usury. Had they been merely successful traders who, had prospered through honest dealing, they had not been condemned; but they were “laden with silver,” acquired through nefarious practices such as deceit and usury. Wealth honourably obtained is no offence against Hearers, and, if righteously employed, may contribute to the happiness and influence of both the individual possessor and the community of which he is a member; riches heaped up by wicked arts are a curse to those who have them, and often go as they have come by violence and fraud. To “provide things honest in the sight of all men” (Rom 12:17) should be the aim of all, but especially of Christians. “On the bells of the horses of trade and commerce should be, Holiness unto the Lord” (Zec 14:20). Happy the nation “whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth” (Isa 23:8).
(3) Of the debauchees and rioters, two self-indulgence and infidelity. “Settled upon their lees,” they abandoned themselves to the gratification of their sinful desires and corrupt inclinations, closed their minds and hearts against better things, and proceeded to daring and presumptuous unbelief, denying the Divine providence if not challenging the Divine existence. All sin tends to lead the soul away from God, to cause it first to shut out thoughts of God, and finally to conclude that God has ceased to be.
3. Their punishments proclaimed.
(1) The sinners of the royal house would be called to account for their iniquities. Though God seemed to be at a distance from them, like a man upon a far journey, he would return and visit upon them the evil deeds of which they had been guilty. Nations no more than individuals, and persons in high station no more than persons in low, can escape the just judgment of God (Rom 2:3).
(2) The merchants would be despoiled of their unjust games (Isa 33:1), and themselves overwhelmed with ruin (Jer 17:11). If good men are sometimes deprived of wealth at a stroke, as Job was, and thus seem to have no advantage above their wicked neighbours, they are never, as these are, utterly undone by the loss of material possessions. In the fall of their houses they do not themselves perish, but find in God a Portion larger, more satisfying and secure, than their silver or gold (Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18).
(3) The debauchees and rioters would be dragged forth from their darkest retreats and requited for their sensuality and unbelief. “The same diligence which Eternal Wisdom used to seek and to save that which was lost, lighting a candle and searching diligently till it find each lost piece of silver, the same shall Almighty God use that no hardened sinner shall escape” (Pusey).
II. THE OFFICIATING PRIESTS.
1. Jehovah himself. “I will punish;” “I will punish; “I will search;” and “I will punish,” saith the Lord. Whatever subordinate agents or secondary causes may be employed to inflict Divine vengeance upon rebellious nations and wicked men, the hand that directs these agents and wields these causes is God’s. He is “the Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25), and “shall judge the people righteously” (Psa 67:4), rendering to every man “according to his work” (Psa 62:11). He “shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil” (Ecc 12:14). “He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world” (Act 17:31).
2. Jehovah‘s ministers. Described as his called and sanctified ones; i.e. not personally holy, but specially consecrated for the work to which they were appointed.
(1) In the case under consideration these were to be the Chaldean armies, which in little more than thirty years were to fall upon Jerusalem, and pour out upon it the vials of Jehovah’s wrath (2Ch 36:16, 2Ch 36:17).
(2) In the world generally the events of his providence are the instruments selected for the execution of his victims (Psa 111:7).
(3) The last minister of judgment will be his Son, into whose hands he hath committed all judgment (Joh 5:22), and before whose tribunal all must appear (2Co 5:10). To him belong the epithets “called” and “sanctified” in their highest sense.
III. THE ENCOMPASSING SPECTATORS. The faithful remnant of Israel, those who still adhered to Jehovah and mourned as did Josiah, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah, Huldah the prophetess, Hilkiah the priest, and others, over the degenerate condition of the nation. So in the world still are God’s believing people called to witness, and often actually do witness, the execution of God’s judgments upon the ungodly. So in the last day, when the vials of Divine indignation will be outpoured upon the finally impenitent, the saints who have been counted worthy to attain Christ’s kingdom and glory will behold the appalling scene, as Abraham beheld the burning of the cities of the plain, and will say, “Hallelujah I salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments” (Rev 19:1, Rev 19:2).
IV. THE RESULTING IMPRESSIONS. Pointed to in the solemn “Hush! be still” (ver. 7), with which the prophet opened his roll of woe. When he summoned the spectators to be silent before the face of Jehovah, he signified that silence was to be the effect produced upon their spirits by the spectacle they were about to witness. And this silence would be one:
1. Of awe; as they contemplated the overpowering revelation of the majesty of God, of his holiness and justice, of his power and fidelity, which would be afforded by his judgments upon the wicked.
2. Of submission; as they recognized the equity of those judgments by which sin was punished, the Divine Law vindicated, and God’s glory proclaimed.
3. Of amazement; as they marvelled how ever they who had once themselves been sinful, had through grace escaped those calamities which they saw overtaking the wicked.
Learn:
1. That God deals with men and nations upon the principle of moral retribution.
2. That neither national nor individual wickedness, if unrepented of, can evade its just recompense of reward.
3. That God’s judgments upon both will ultimately be approved by all. T.W.
Zep 1:7. – The soul’s silences before the presence of the Lord.
I. A SILENCE OF ADORATION. As becomes a creature in the presence of his Creator (Zec 2:13; Hab 2:20), and a sinner in the presence of the Holy One (Job 40:4).
II. A SILENCE OF CONTEMPLATION. AS befits the soul in those moments in which God reveals himself in nature (Job 37:14) or in grace (Gen 17:3; Exo 14:13).
III. A SILENCE OF EXPECTATION. As a praying soul maintains when looking out for a response to his supplications, or a perplexed spirit when waiting for God to clear up the mystery of his providence.
IV. A SILENCE OF SUBMISSION. As they preserve who recognize the ills of life to proceed from the hand of God (Psa 39:2; Lam 3:28, Lam 3:29).
V. A SILENCE OF APPROBATION. As God’s judgments will enforce upon all who behold them (Psa 46:10). T.W.
Zep 1:8. – Foreign clothes.
I. A BOND OF INTERNATIONAL UNION. The interchange of commodities among the different peoples of the earth one of the surest means of promoting peace and causing wars to cease.
II. A SIGN OF ADVANCING CIVILIZATION. When a nation’s wants multiply beyond its own power directly to meet them, it naturally draws upon the resources of lands and peoples beyond itself. Thus while the existence of these wants marks the upward progress of the nation itself, the effort needed to supply them acts as a stimulus to other peoples to join in the onward march.
III. A SYMPTOM OF DECLINING PATRIOTISM. No truer indication that the national sentiment amongst a people is becoming feeble than the slavish imitation of the manners and customs, speech and dress, of a stronger neighbour.
IV. A SYMBOL OF RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. In this light regarded by the Egyptian or Chaldean raiment worn by Judaean princes and peasants meant that their hearts were hankering after Egyptian or Chaldean idolatry. So when Christians conform to the world’s ways, adopting its maxims and principles, manners and customs, thoughts and feelings, sentiments and practices all of which should be to them what foreign clothes were to Israel there is reason to suspect that a backward movement in religion has begun. T.W.
Zep 1:12. – Settled on one’s lees.
I. A PICTURE OF PROSPEROUS EASE. The image that of wine which has been allowed to settle in its cask, without having ever been drawn off or emptied from vessel to vessel naturally suggests the condition of one who has become prosperous and affluent, who has never been visited by misfortune, agitated by calamity, or disturbed by affliction, but who through long years has been left to feast and fatten, like an ox in his stall, or (adhering to the metaphor) to fill and settle like a cask of wine.
II. A SYMBOL OF RELIGIOUS (OR, RATHER, IRRELIGIOUS) DEGENERATION. As wine, left upon its lees, retains its flavour good or bad, as the case may be so does the soul acquire a moral flavour from the things in which it delights, and on which, as it were, it rests. Nay, as good wine becomes better and bad wine worse from being allowed to settle on its lees, so do pious souls become stronger and more fixed in goodness, but ungodly souls more confirmed and rooted in wickedness, by being suffered to rest, the one on the holy inclinations and the other on the sinful lusts which form the lowest strata respectively of their beings.
III. A PRECURSOR OF APPROACHING DOOM. As bad wine allowed to settle on its lees rapidly deteriorates and reaches such a state of badness as to be unfit for use, so wicked men that settle on their lees, gratifying their sensual desires and venting their atheistical opinions, ultimately sink to such a point of moral degeneration as not to admit of recovery, and as allows nothing to be anticipated for them but swift and sudden destruction.
LESSONS.
1. The danger of prosperity.
2. The value of adversity. T.W.
Zep 1:14-18. – The great day of the Lord.
I. RAPIDLY APPROACHING. “The great day of the Lord is near, it is Dear, and hasteth greatly” (ver. 14). This was true of the Chaldean invasion, then little more than one generation distant so near, in fact, that the prophet could hear the bitter cry of the mighty man who saw himself confronted by its terrors; and is true of that other and greater day of the Lord, the day of judgment (2Pe 2:9; 1Jn 4:17; Rev 6:17), which the Christian is directed always to consider as at hand (Php 4:5; Jas 5:8, Jas 5:9; 1Pe 4:7; Rev 22:12), because the exact moment of its coming no one can tell (Mat 24:36; Mat 25:13, Mat 25:42).
II. TERRIBLY ALARMING. What the Chaldean invasion should prove to the guilty city of Jerusalem and nation of Judah the prophet depicts by heaping together all the images of horror that his mind can conceive or his language express, calling the time of that visitation a day of wrath and fury, in which Jehovah should pour out his indignation upon the land and its inhabitants, letting loose upon them the ferocious warriors of Babylon; a day of trouble and distress, in which men should be hemmed in on every side by calamity and pressed down by anguish, walking like blind men and falling like wounded and dying soldiers; a day of wasteness and desolation, in which fields should be devastated, houses overthrown, and men and women put to the edge of the sword; a day of darkness and gloominess, of clouds and thick darkness, in which not so much as a single star of hope should appear in the political firmament; a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high battlements, in which their fortified towns and cities should experience the shock of pitiless assailants. But even more appropriately will these images apply to the day of judgment, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire and with his holy angels (2Th 1:8).
III. FIERCELY DESTROYING.
1. Absolutely unavoidable. “The mighty man crieth bitterly there, …. because he cannot save himself, and must succumb to the power of the foe” (Keil). So would it be in the hour of Babylon’s descent upon Judah and Jerusalem; so will it be in the day of the revelation of the wrath of the Almighty (Rev 6:15-17).
2. Utterly consuming. “Their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make an end, yea; a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land” (comp. Eze 7:19). The same doom of utter extermination will overtake the finally impenitent in the day when God awakes in terrible majesty to execute judgment on the ungodly. Of these “God shall make an utter, terrific, speedy destruction, a living death, so that they shall at once be and not be; be, as continued in being; not be, as having no life in God, but only a continued death in misery” (Pusey).
Lessons.
1. Gratitude to God, who hath made provision through the gospel of his Son from delivering men from the wrath to come.
2. The duty of all to whom that gospel is made known to embrace its provisions and escape from impending peril, while yet the day of mercy lasts.
3. The wisdom of living in constant anticipation of that day, and of perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
4. The urgency of making known to men the gospel, that they may flee from the wrath to come. T.W.
HOMILIES BY J.S. CANDLISH
Zep 1:1-18. – The judgment threatened.
We learn from ver. 1 that Zephaniah received from the Lord his message to Judah in the days of Josiah, the last of the godly and reforming kings, who, after the gross corruption of the preceding reigns of Manasseh and Amon, restored to a large extent the purity of the worship of God, and was the means of bringing about a certain kind and degree of repentance and amendment in the people. Probably, however, the major part of Zephaniah’s prophecy belongs to the early part of Josiah’s reign, before his greatest public reformation was begun; for there is no allusion to that hopeful work in the book of the prophet, and there is no mention of Zephaniah in the history, where Jeremiah and Huldah the prophetess are described as aiding and guiding the king’s efforts to bring the people back to godliness. But the word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah doubtless prepared the way for the work of full reformation, though the messenger may not have been spared to take part and rejoice in it. His message is, first, an announcement of the judgment of Jehovah against the people, which occupies the whole of Zep 1:1-18.; and ver. 7 may be taken as its central point, containing the lesson of duty, on which all that precedes and follows it converges. We shall best feel the force of this lesson if we begin from the outside of this oracle, the more obvious and manifest appearance of the judgment of Jehovah here announced, which the prophet puts at the beginning and end (vers. 2, 3, 14-18).
I. THE NATURE OF THIS JUDGMENT. At the very outset it is described in a way. fitted to startle and alarm; for it is to be of a most sweeping and universal nature (vers. 2, 3). The words remind us of nothing less than the universal deluge, by which the old world was swept away. A destruction like that is impending over Judah. There had been many chastisements sent on the people before; the land had been invaded, the royal treasuries rifled, the country laid waste. No fewer than ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been not very long before carried away into Assyria. Still, these visitations had been only partial; a remnant had always been left; and many were apt to trust that so it would ever be. Because God had given Israel the land, they thought that some part of it at least must always be theirs. But now they are warned that this is a false confidence, and that, in spite of the gift of the land to Abraham’s seed, the corrupt race that now inhabit it shall be utterly cut off. Moreover, this judgment, that is to be so sweeping, is also very near at hand. In the old world the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah; but now he has waited long and sent messenger after messenger; and at last the time of delay is near]y exhausted, and the judgment is close at hand, for their iniquity is all but full. The day of the Lord is represented as hasting to meet them; the sound of its coming is already heard, and very soon it will be here. Have not all these lesser judgments been foretastes of it? the capture of Galilee by Tiglath-Pileser, the removal of the whole northern kingdom by Shalmaneser or Sargon, the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib? and has not each one of these been more sweeping and far reaching than the former? Are not these signs and harbingers of the great day of the Lord here announced? Then how terrible and irresistible is this judgment (vers. 15-18)! Physical strength and power shall not deliver the guilty nation. There are, indeed, fortified cities in the land, and high towers to bar the entrance of an enemy; and it may seem as if behind these they might defy the invader; but against them shall be raised the sound of the war trumpet, and the battleshout of a great host, before which they shall not be able to stand. Skill and wisdom shall not be able to save them. These have often enabled armies very much inferior in numbers to conquer great hosts; but now there shall be perplexity and dismay, and men shall be groping like blind men in the dark, unable to devise any means of resistance or escape, bewildered and disheartened. Wealth sometimes may be used to buy off an invading monarch or army. So in former days kings of Judah had repeatedly obtained relief from foreign foes by giving up to them the treasures of the palace and temple. But in this invasion neither silver nor gold shall be of any avail to deliver them. The prophet does not indicate more particularly from what quarter this terrible invasion shall come that is left to be made manifest by the event. For the terribleness of the judgment did not arise merely from the fact that it was to be inflicted by a great worldly power, which would be overpowering in force and would not care for bribes; but from this, that that power, whatever it might be, was to be the instrument of Jehovah’s wrath against the nation. Israel had often been saved from fierce attacks of mighty nations before, and enabled to defy their rage; but that had not been because of their wisdom or courage, but because they trusted in God, and had his protection. Now, however, there was coming on them the day of the Lord’s anger; he was to hide his face from them, and therefore it would be to them a day of such darkness, dismay, and despair. This brings us somewhat nearer the centre and heart of this prophecy, and leads us to consider
II. THE CAUSES OF THE JUDGMENT, ANNOUNCED AS SO SWEEPING, NEAR, AND TERRIBLE. These are the sins of the land, of which a long and dark catalogue is unrolled (vers. 4-12). First comes what was the great besetting sin of ancient times, as it has ever been of men who possess not or will not receive God’s revelation of himself, idolatry, the worship of the seen and earthly as Divine, instead of the only true God who is invisible and spiritual, the worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator, The invisible things of God, his eternal power and Godhead, are seen and understood by the things that are made; for “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” But men, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, keep back this truth in unrighteousness, and come to regard the powers of nature as themselves Divine; and worship the heavens, the earth, the sun, the stars, as gods, instead of regarding them as the works of the true God, who is above them all. Thus they fall into a religion that is purely sensuous, requiring no elevation of the soul above what can be seen and heard and felt a religion also that is divorced from morality, for when men come to regard the processes of nature as the highest thing that there is, they can see in them no moral law or order. Such was the corrupt religion of the heathen world, left by God to its own way, and against this his revelation to Israel was designed to testify, declaring him to be a Being spiritual and holy, the one living and true God. But the chosen people were ever tempted to fall back to that sensuous and immoral conception of God that found expression in the idolatry of the surrounding nations. Various forms of such idolatry as was then common are here alluded to. There was the Phoenician worship of Baal, which had been introduced long ago by Jezebel into the northern kingdom, and through Athaliah into Judah; and there was also the more recently imported worship of the stars and heavenly bodies, the form of idolatry that prevailed in the Eastern countries with which Judah was now beginning to be acquainted. This worship was performed by burning incense and offering sacrifices on the flat tops of the houses, looking up to the sky and host of heaven. But along with these gross forms of idolatry there is also condemned the corrupt worship of Jehovah. The worship at the high places, with which the kohanim (ver. 4) were connected, was indeed a worship of Jehovah, but had become in course of time thoroughly idolatrous in its character; the pillars or groves placed beside the altars came to be worshipped as symbols of the Deity, and, as in Bethel and Dan, idols were identified with him. Thus the true invisible God was degraded to the likeness of the idols of the heathen, and this worship at the high places had to be utterly condemned and swept away. Another corruption of the pure worship of Jehovah was the combination of it with that of the heathen deities. There were those who worshipped and swore to Jehovah, and at the same time swore by Malcham (ver. 5) their king, i.e. Baal. They thought that they could preserve their allegiance to the God of Israel while yet they paid homage also to Baal. They would thus be halting between two opinions, or trying to make a compromise, which on any view of it must degrade the true God. It could only imply either that Jehovah and Baal were both real powers over their several nations, and so Jehovah would be merely a local or national deity; or else that they were but different names of the same supreme power, which would thus be made a mere nature power, such as Baal was conceived to be, not the holy God who had revealed himself to Israel. Then the prophet speaks (ver. 6) of what is implied in all this, and lies at the bottom of it all. These corrupt forms of worship were really a forsaking the Lord; and the beginning of the evil lay in ungodliness; they did not seek the Lord, nor inquire for him. Many who might not be guilty of any of the kinds of idolatry that prevailed, might yet be liable to this reproach, which is surely the severest of all. They professed that they knew God, but they did not look to him in their times of trouble, they did not seek to know his will from his Law or his prophets, they did not call on him for help in time of need he was to them, in fact, but a name or an idea, not a real, living, personal God. If this was all their religion, it was no wonder that they should be easily led to adopt some visible symbol of the Deity, or to cover up the hollowness of their profession by abundance of rites of worship, or to associate their belief in one Lord with the service of the deities of neighbouring countries, which seemed to be more realities to their devotees. Such were the corruptions of religion in Israel. With these were associated great social evils. Along with the foreign religious rites there were introduced also foreign customs, that marred the simplicity of the national character. This appeared most prominently in dress, which is here especially mentioned (ver. 8); but that was doubtless only an outward symptom of much more radical evils. According to the Law, Israel was to be distinguished from other nations by their dress as well as by their religion. Their characteristic dress was to be marked, on the one hand, by simplicity and decency (Lev 19:19; Deu 22:11, Deu 22:12), and on the other hand, by having fringes as a memorial of Jehovah’s Law (Num 15:38). But now they were growing ashamed of this outward mark of their religion, and came to adopt the more varied and splendid costume of their neighbours. This probably indicated in general habits of luxury and ostentation, which would naturally begin and be most prevalent among the princes and courtiers, though from them they would spread to other classes. Such selfish indulgence was especially to be condemned at a time when the nation was far from being in a secure or prosperous state. It had suffered serious losses, and barely escaped from imminent dangers; and even now the land was much impoverished compared with its former state, and the great empires around were becoming more powerful and threatening. Surely this was not a time to imitate foreign luxurious customs, and to be ashamed of the ancient and godly simplicity of Israel’s manners. Such luxury could only be maintained by the rich and the princes by means of oppression and extortion; and this is another evil described as the cause of the judgment (ver. 9). Those who leap on the threshold may refer, as some think, to the Philistines, who formed, with other foreigners, the royal bodyguard; or they may simply indicate, as others think, the eagerness with which the satellites of the princes intruded into the houses of the citizens, in order, by their oppressive exactions, to fill the houses of their masters. Anyhow, the verse indicates that, in order to keep up the splendour and luxury of the court, the people were oppressed, and exorbitant taxes or contributions levied from them by a system of fraudulent charges, or forcible domiciliary visitation. This is the natural accompaniment of a selfish oligarchy in an impoverished and declining state. Then, further, the merchant people in Jerusalem, who seem to have had as their place of business the valley between the hills of the old and new city, are as Canaanites in their transactions; the balances of deceit are in their hand; they have laden themselves with silver by usury and fraud. Such ill-gotten gains seem to be alluded to in ver. 11, and threatened with destruction when the enemy shall burst into the city by the fish gate at the northwest, its most exposed side; when the cry from it shall only be answered by a helpless howling from the new city and crashing from the higher parts, and the hollow valley where merchants most did congregate shall be, as it were, a mortar (Maktesh), in which they shall be trodden down and bruised to pieces by the invading host. At least there is described a prevailing avarice and hasting to be rich, as one of the causes on account of which this crushing judgment comes. Finally, we have set before us the careless self-indulgence of those who are at ease amid all this prevailing evil, who have had no changes, and have no fear of change, who say or think that neither good nor evil, blessing nor judgment, is to be looked for from God (ver. 12). All things continue as they were; and the thought of a present, living God, the Judge of the earth, and the Avenger of wrong, has faded from men’s minds. Such are the various forms of evil that are indicated by the prophet as the cause of the judgment which he announces. Can it be said that they are unknown in our day and in ourselves? No doubt the outward forms of idolatry and oppression then rampant are strange and repulsive to us; but are we free from the tendency to degrade the living God to a mere nature power, which is the essence of idolatry? And are not ungodliness, neglect of God’s spiritual worship, selfish ostentation and luxury, neglect and oppression of the poor, love of money, and careless self-indulgence, but too well known among us? The picture is not one of mere historical or antiquarian interest, but of ever present moral significance. It teaches us that such evils always lead to ruin, that they lay a nation helpless at the feet of its enemies, and make its continued existence impossible. All history confirms this lesson; and revelation bids us look beyond all merely historical catastrophes to that final judgment of the Lord which shall, in the fullest sense, be universal, embracing, not one nation only, but all mankind, and searching out each individual, to be confronted with his Judge and with the fruit of his own doings.
III. THE LESSON OF ALL THIS IS EXPRESSED IN THE WORDS, “HOLD THY PEACE AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD.” (Zep 1:7.) This is the first and most urgent duty. The prophet has further directions to give in following discourses; but this is the immediate effect that the announcement of judgment should have. A silence of awe and humility is what becomes men in the presence of God, when he rises up to judgment as the Lord of all the earth. “Be still, and know that I am God,” is his voice as the day of the Lord approaches. This implies a recognition, on the one hand, of the reality, and on the other hand, of the justice, of God’s judgment. It should be received as a real expression of God’s wrath against the sins of men. Let not the evils that come upon nations or individuals in consequence of their sins be regarded as mere accidents, or as only due to the operation of natural laws. They may be brought about immediately by such second causes, but behind all these we are to recognize the mind and will of the living God. He speaks to us as truly by the ordinary courses of nature as by the most stupendous miracle, and if he shows us that earthly conceptions of the Divine degrade and brutalize man, that selfishness and selfish indulgence, luxury and oppression, bring a people to ruin and lay them helpless at the feet of their foes, that is a real and most solemn judgment of God against these things. Let us be silent also as recognizing the justice of this judgment. These things are evil, deserving of abhorrence and destruction; and God, who in his laws of nature appoints ruin to be their consequence, shows himself just and holy. Let us humbly acknowledge this; and in so far as these evils of ungodliness and selfishness have found place in us, let us put our hand on our mouth, acknowledging that we have nothing to answer to God, and are verily guilty in his sight. There is hope for us if we thus confess our sin. There is hope in the very fact that God announces his judgment against our sin. For what is the announcement? It is that God will utterly sweep away the evils that are done in the land; it is against those that the fire of his wrath is kindled; and if men will cling to these evils, and hug their sins to their bosom, he will sweep away the wicked with the stumbling blocks. Both together shall be destroyed, for God will be rid at last of sin. But if any are willing to be separated from their sins, by however humble and painful a process that may be, then the assurance that God will utterly sweep away the evil will have hope for them. The fire that is to devour the whole land is a fire of jealousy as well as of wrath. Because the Lord loves his people with a jealous affection, in spite of all their unfaithfulness, he will, if they but silently trust themselves to him, make the fire of his anger against their sin to purify and reflect them. Thus this coming of the Lord for judgment is the harbinger of final salvation to those who desire to be purged from those evils against which his wrath is revealed. Therefore “let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption; and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquity.” C.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Zep 1:1-6. – The Word.
“The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amen, King of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast,” etc. Of Zephaniah we have no information but what is contained in his prophecy. His genealogy is given in the first verse of this chapter. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, probably between the twelfth and eighteenth years of his reign. In the first chapter he predicts the utter desolation of Judah. In the second, he exhorts his countrymen to repentance in view of the approaching judgments, and threatens the surrounding nations, Philistia, Moab, and Ammon. In the third, after a severe rebuke of Jerusalem, he foretells, in glowing language, its future purification and enlargement, and the destruction of air its enemies. The style is distinguished neither by sublimity nor elegance. He resembles in many respects his contemporary, Jeremiah. He borrows some of the language of former prophets (comp. Zep 2:14 with Isa 13:21 and Isa 34:11; Zep 2:15 with Isa 47:8). “The genealogy of Zephaniah is given through Cushi, Gedaliah, and Amariah to Hezekiah; for in the original Hebrew the words ‘Hizkiah’ and ‘Hezekiah’ are the same. As it was unusual that the descent of prophets should be given with such particularity, it has been assumed with some probability that Hezekiah was the king of that name; though in this case we should have expected the addition, ‘King of Judah.’ The chemarim are the idol priests; that is, priests devoted to idol worship. In 2Ki 23:5, where the writer is speaking of the reformation under Josiah, the word is translated idolatrous priests; in Hos 10:5, simply priests, which is its meaning in the Syriac language. Some have maintained that the invasion of Judah to which Zephaniah refers was that of the Scythians described by Herodotus; but this is very improbable. From the fact that the king’s children are included in the threatened invasion in the Hebrew, ‘I will visit upon the princes and the king’s children’ some have inferred that they must have been already grown and addicted to idolatrous practices; consequently, that Zephaniah wrote later than the eighteenth year of Josiah. But, as Keil and others have remarked, the mention of the king’s children may have been added simply to indicate the universality of the approaching visitation; not to say that the prophetic vision of Zephaniah may have anticipated the sin and the punishment of these king’s children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim” (Barrows). In these verses we learn two things.
I. THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD.
1. The distinguishing capacity of man. What is that? To receive the word of Jehovah. “The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi,” etc. This Zephaniah, who from the fulness of his genealogy here given, was perhaps a person of note, was, however, mainly distinguished by this viz, that he received a word from Jehovah. What is it to receive a word from another? Not merely to hear it, to remember its sound, or to write it down, but to appreciate its meaning. This is the grand distinction of man as a mundane existence, it is not the reasoning principle that distinguishes man from other creatures on earth, for other creatures possess this in some degree; not the durability of his existence, for other creatures may live as long as he; but the capacity of taking in ideas from the Infinite Mind, to understand and realize God’s thoughts. In a sense, there is a greater distance between me as a man and the most intelligent animal on this earth, than there is between me and my Maker. The highest animal cannot take in and understand my thoughts; but I can take in and understand the thoughts of my Maker. “The word of the Lord” comes to every man at times comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart.
2. The wonderful condescension of God. How amazing the condescension of God to speak to man! Many of the pour little wretched creatures who are called emperors and empresses would, perhaps, not deign to speak to paupers, to hold converse with them; but the “Lord, though he be high, yet hath respect unto the humble; …. Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, To that man will I look who is of a contrite heart.”
II. THE MORAL CORRUPTION OF MAN, AND THE EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD.
1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses.
(1) Idolatry. “I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops.” The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places. Baal was the Phoenician tutelary god. His name means lord; and the feminine god corresponding and generally associated with him was Ashtaroth. As he was represented by the sun, so she was the goddess answering to the moon and the rest of the heavenly host. In fact, it was the worship of nature; a worship to which corresponds the pantheistic and scientific exaltation of Nature and her laws in our own days, as if God were the slave of his own world and its laws, instead of the Lord, Creator, and Sustainer, who can and will modify, alter, and suspend the order of the present system of things, according to his own sovereign pleasure, and in furtherance of the higher moral laws, in subserviency to which the laws of nature exist. From the time of the judges (Jdg 2:13) Israel had fallen into this idolatry; and Manasseh had lately set up this idol within Jehovah’s temple itself (2Ki 21:3-7): “He reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove [symbol of the goddess Ashtaroth] and worshipped all the host of heaven… And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my Name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he set a graven image of the grove [the symbol of the heavenly host] that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name forever.” Josiah began his reformation in the twelfth year of his reign (2Ch 34:3, 2Ch 34:4, 2Ch 34:8), and in the eighteenth had as far as possible completed it. “And the name of the Chemarims with the priests.” These chemarim were in all probability subordinate ministers of the idolatrous priests, and their duty was to assist them at the altar. “Them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops.” The houses in the East had flat roofs, open to the heavens, and there the worship was performed. Idolatry is one of the great sins of the world; it is confined to no age or laud. Its spirit is loving the creature more than the Creator.
(2) Backsliding. “Them that are turned back from the Lord.” Indeed, idolatry is an apostasy, and so is all sin. All sin is a going back from the Lord. “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13).
(3) Indifferentism. “And those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him.” This is the most prevalent of all sins, and is one of the great roots of all immoralities an utter neglect of religion. Religious indifferentism is the great sin of England today. God and his claims are everywhere practically ignored. This indifferentism, like a vast pool of mud, generates all that is morally noxious, pernicious, and vile in our midst.
2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.”
(1) No one can really destroy but God. “I kill, and I make alive.” Annihilation is as far behind the power of the creature as is the work of creation. Man may crush the forms of things, but the essences lie infinitely beyond his touch.
(2) God has a right to destroy human life. He has a right because it belongs to him. He has a right because through sin it has forfeited its existence.
(3) His destructive work is as beneficent as his sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature; one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. D.T.
Zep 1:7-18. – The day of war the day of horrors.
“Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord.” These verses present a graphic and soul-stirring description of the horrid day of war which was about to dawn on the Hebrew land. It is called a “day of wrath,” a “day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.” No more awful day than the day of war. It is a day when fiends are released from prison and let loose on earth, The war day is represented here
I. AS A DAY OF ENORMOUS SACRIFICE. “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice.” .4. sacrifice!
1. It is an enormous sacrifice of life. Several classes are referred to here as the victims of this war.
(1) Royalty. “I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and. all such as and clothed with strangle apparel.” The reference is here probably to the princes of the royal house, to the children of the king who would be on the throne at the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy. In 2Ki 25:7 it is said that Nebuchadnezzar slew the sons of King Zedekiah before his eyes. When the savage and bloodthirsty lions of war are let loose, they are regardless of all social distinction; they seize the princes as well as paupers. No class in society, perhaps, as a rule, deserve the destruction more than the rulers of the people. They for the most part create the wars, and often deserve to be struck down. Through all history they have generally been the war makers. War is their own child, and their child sometimes strikes them down.
(2) Another class referred to is the nobility. “In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.” Some suppose that there is a reference here. to the Philistine custom of not treading on the “threshold,” which arose from the head and hands of Dagon being cut off on the threshold before the ark (1Sa 5:5). It scarcely matters; reckless men in power are referred to men that fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. “The servants of princes,” says Calvin, “who have gotten prey like hounds for their masters, leap exultingly on their masters’ threshold, or on the threshold of the houses which they break into.” War sometimes, and insurrectionary war always, strikes savagely at the higher classes. It plays sad havoc with aristocracies; it sets manors in flames, and treads coronets in the dust. (See another and more probable interpretation in the Exposition.)
(3) Another class referred to is that of the traders. “Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down: all they that bear silver are cut off.” Some translate Maktesh, “Mortar,” a name employed for the valley of Siloam, from its hollow shape. It was a valley at the eastern extremity of Moriah, where the merchants dwelt. The invading army seizes the wealth of the country. Greedy conquerors have always had a keen eye to this.
(4) Another class referred to is the masses. “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” This is not a bad description of the masses of people in all ages. They are:
(a) Unconspicuous. Pretty well all alike, they do not stand out in the country from the generality. War has no particular aim at them, though it strikes them indiscriminately; still, though unconspicuous, war will find them out. “I will search Jerusalem with candles.”
(b) Religiously indifferent. “Settled on their lees.” This means crusted, hardened, like wines long left at the bottom undisturbed. “That say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” Religious indifferentism has always been the leading characteristic of the masses. Note the sacrifice of life in all these classes the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the learned, the innocent and the guilty, the young and the old, all in war form one huge sacrifice of blood. It is overwhelmingly awful to think of the lives that have been sacrificed in war even since the year 1852. In the Crimean War it is estimated that 750,000 fell; in the Italian War, 45,000; in the war at Schleswig-Holstein, 3000; in the American Civil War, 800,000; in the war between Prussia, Austria, and Italy, 45,000; expeditions to Mexico, Cochin China, Morocco, Paraguay, 65,000; in the FrancoGerman War, 215,000; Turkey massacres in Bulgaria, 25,000; total, 1,948,000. This is one of the sacrifices that war has made, not only in civilized lands, but even in Christendom during the last thirty-five years; and the perpetrators of these enormities call themselves Christians, professed disciples of him who said, “I came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.”
2. It is an enormous sacrifice of property. “Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.” Who can estimate the amount of property that the wars during the last thirty years have utterly destroyed? The Crimean War cost 340,000,000; the Italian, 60,000,000; the American Civil War, 1,400,000,090; the Franco-Prussian, 500,000,000; and the comparatively smaller wars, 1,000,000; an amount altogether of 2,400,000,000 a sufficient stun to supply every inhabitant of the globe, not only with the necessaries, but with the comforts and educational advantages of life. “Give me,” says Stebbins, “the amount that has been spent in war, and I will purchase every foot of land of the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire that kings and queens might be proud of. I will build a school house upon every hillside and in every valley over the habitable earth. I will supply that school house with a competent teacher. I will build an academy in every town, and endow it; and a college in every state, and fill it with able professors. I will crown every hill with a church consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace. I will support in its pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every sabbath morning the chime of one hill shall answer to the chime of another around the earth’s broad circumference; and the voice of prayer and the song of praise shall ascend like the smoke of a universal holocaust to heaven.” To talk of the glories of war is to exult in the horrors of hell. I confess that a quivering seizes my nerves, and a chilly sadness comes over my spirits, when I hear men calling themselves Christians, especially ministers, uttering one word in favor of war, whether defensive or aggressive. The man who defends war defends the devil himself.
II. AS A DAY OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION. All, these horrors of war are here represented as judgments from the Almighty. It is called the “day of the Lord.” He is represented as having “prepared a sacrifice,” referring to the awful sacrifice of life and property; as having summoned his guests the warriors, men of blood to battle. Indeed, it is called the “Lord’s sacrifice.” He is represented as saying, “I will punish the princes;” “I will search Jerusalem with candles;” “I will bring distress upon men.” And again, “The whole land shall be devoured by the fire” of his jealousy; “for he shall make even a speedy riddance.” In Bible phraseology, the Almighty is often represented as the Author of that which he merely permits. He does not originate wars. The consciousness of warriors attests this. All the passions of greed, revenge, and ambition, whence all wars spring, are self generated in the breast of the man of blood. His moral constitution will not allow him to ascribe them to his Maker; he charges them on himself. He feels that he is not their Author, and he knows that they stand in awful contrast with the holy and beneficent will of the almighty Maker of the universe. He does not instigate these abominations, but allows, uses, and controls them. In using war as a punishment for sin, three things are to be observed.
1. That all who perish in war righteously deserve their fate. God says here, “I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned.” War, in its most savage recklessness, does not strike one man down who has not sinned, and whose sin does not deserve death. The penalty of death that comes to men in war would, by the moral laws of the universe, come to them sooner or later in some other form. “It is appointed to all men once to die;” “The wages of sin is death.”
2. That warriors, in executing the Divine justice, demonstrate the enormity of the evil requiring punishment. Where can sin be seen in aspects so complete in all that is morally horrific, outrageous, and infernal, as in the battlefield? No thoughtful man can gaze on it there without feeling that the righteous Governor of the universe, for the happiness of his creation, is bound to visit it with his hot displeasure.
3. War, as an officer of Divine justice, reveals the amazing freedom allowed to the sinner in this world, and God’s controlling power over hostile forces. Who will say that man is a slave when he sees the warrior going forth with a free step on a mission directly hostile to the beneficent laws of the universe, the moral institutions of his own nature, and the revealed will of Heaven? He allowed men even to put to death his own Son upon the cross. Here is liberty. Whilst human freedom is revealed, God’s controlling power is also most strikingly manifest. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise him.” He has servants who serve him against their will, as well as servants who serve him with their will. Warriors and devils are of the former class. “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Gen 1:20); “I have raised thee up for to show in thee my power” (Exo 9:16); “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.” Out of the wars and tumults of his enemies he will bring something glorious, a Lord and Christ.
“Patiently received from thee,
Evil cannot evil be;
Evil is by evil healed,
Evil is but good concealed?
(Charles Wesley.) D.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
Zep 1:1 to Zep 2:3
[The Universality of the Judgment (Zep 1:2-3): it will destroy all the Idolaters in Judah and Jerusalem (Zep 1:4-7): it will fall upon Sinners of every Rank (Zep 1:8-13): it will burst irresistibly upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth (Zep 1:14-18): a Call to Conversion (Zep 2:1-3).C. E.]
1 The word of Jehovah, which was communicated to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hiskiah [Hezekiah]; in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah:
2 I will utterly destroy1 everything from the face of the earth, saith Jehovah.
3 I will destroy man and beast:
I will destroy the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea,
And the causes of offence2 with the sinners;
And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,
Saith Jehovah.
4 And I will stretch forth my hand over Judah,
And over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
And I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal,
The idol-priests,3 together with the priests;
5 And those who worship the host of heaven upon their roofs,
And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah,
And who swear by their king;4
6 And those who draw back from Jehovah,
Who do not seek Jehovah,
And do not inquire for Him.
7 Be silent before the Lord Jehovah,
For the day of Jehovah is near;
For Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice,
He has consecrated those whom He has invited.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovahs sacrifice,
That I will visit [with punishment] the princes and the kings sons,
And all that wear foreign apparel.
9 And I will visit, in that day, every one that leaps over the threshold,
Those who fill the house of their Lord with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah,
[That there shall be] the voice of crying from the fish-gate,
And howling from the lower city,5
And great destruction from the hills.
11 Howl ye inhabitants of the Mortar,6
For all the people of Canaan are destroyed,
All that are laden with silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time,
That I will search Jerusalem with candles,
And I will visit the men who lie upon their lees,
Who say in their hearts,
Jehovah will not do good, neither will He do evil.
13 And their wealth shall become a spoil,
And their houses a desolation;
And they shall build houses and not inhabit them,
And plant vineyards and not drink their wine.
14 The great day of Jehovah is near;
It is near and hasteth greatly;
Hark! the day of Jehovah,
Bitterly cries the mighty man there.
15 A day of [overflowing] wrath is that day,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of ruin and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds, and cloudy darkness;
16 A day of the trumpet and of the war-cry
Against the fortified cities,
And against the lofty battlements.
17 And I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall walk as the blind;
Because they have sinned against Jehovah,
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them
In the day of Jehovahs fury;
And the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy [anger];
For He will make an end, yea a sudden one, to all the inhabitants of the earth.
II
1 Bend7 yourselves, bend ye people, that do not grow pale;
2 Before the decree bring forth,
(The day passes away like chaff,)
Before the burning wrath of Jehovah come upon you,
Before the day of Jehovahs anger come upon you.
3 Seek Jehovah, all ye humble of the land,
Who have kept [wrought] his right [law];
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
Perhaps ye will be hidden in the day of Jehovahs wrath.
EXEGETICAL
On the heading compare the Introduction, I. The prophecy itself describes, like Nah 1:1 ff., in an abstract manner, the judgment, in its internal, necessary character. It is
(a) Gods judgment, hence absolute (Zep 1:2-3), but
(b) In its relation to Israel, it has for its end the extermination of idolatry (Zep 1:4-6), so that it appears as a holy act, not merely as a slaughter, but as a sacrifice. (Zep 1:7.)
To these introductory thoughts are joined
(c) The description of the separate necessary acts of punishment (Zep 1:8-13); three strophes of two verses each, of which each is introduced by a and
(d) A general characteristic of the terribleness of the day of judgment (Zep 1:14-18), finally
(e) An exhortation to repentance before the judgment (Zep 2:1-3).
Zep 1:2-3 : The Universality of the Judgment. From the very first the prophet characterizes his prophecy as a threatening one: I will sweep off, sweep off everything from the face of the earth. Instead of , which we would expect, the prophet joins to the inf. abs. of the root the verb fin. of the cognate root . Comp. on Hab 3:9, and Ewald, sec. 312 b, 3. The retrospective contrast to Mic 2:11 cannot be mistaken; and just as little to be mistaken is the allusion to the Divine sentence, Gen 6:7.
Zep 1:3 : I will sweep off in the sea. The creatures are affected by the universality of the judgment; connected by a community of interests with mankind, on whose account the judgment takes place, they suffer with them. And the ruins,the habitations of men, world, land, state, city (comp. Isa 3:6), which go to wreck before the judgment of God,together with the sinners, comp. Nah 1:14. The meaning of offense [Aergerniss] (Luther, Strauss, Keil), for the word , is dot exactly ungrammatical, but it cannot be substantiated from the usage of the language. (It seems certainly to be presupposed, Mat 13:41. Schmieder. [See note 2, Zep 1:3.C. E.] I will certainly destroy men from the face of the earth, saith Jehovah.
Zep 1:4-7 : The edge of the judgment is directed against Judah and Jerusalem and the idolatry there. And I will stretch out my hand (the noted favorite expression of Isa 9:11 ff., comp. Isa 5:25) over Judah and I will destroy from this place the remnant of Baal, which the king had not yet destroyed. Comp. the Introd. 2. Baal stands for the worship of Baal (comp. Hosea 2), as the explanatory appositional clause immediately following proves: the names of the idolpriests [Pfaffen], together with the priests [Priestern]., was the official designation of the priests of Baal (2Ki 23:5); these were entirely to disappear; this is what is meant by the destruction of the name (comp. Nah 1:14). But, as we may certainly infer from the circumstance that the worship of Baal had been introduced into the Temple also (2Ki 23:4 comp. 2Ki 16:11) the Cohanim too, priests of Jehovah, both in Israel and in Judah, had polluted themselves by their participation in idolatry.
[These, too, are to disappear, though their name, consecrated by the Torah [Law], cannot be removed. [Keil is of the opinion that the Kemrum are not prophets of Baal, but, as in 2Ki 23:5, and Hos 10:5, the priests appointed by the kings of Judah for the worship of the high places and the idolatrous worship of Jehovah. Khnm, as distinguished from these, he considers idolatrous priests in the stricter sense of the word.C. E.]
And as it befalls the priests, so is it to befall the worshippers of false gods [Gtzen], Zep 1:5 : And those who worship the host of heaven upon their roofs. [Comp. Jahns Bib. Arch, sees. 406 and 407, pages 518, 519, New York, Ivison & Co., 1866; also Thomsons The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 52, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1859.C. E.] This Babylonian worship (comp. Com. on Nahum, p. 36) was known already in the time of Moses (Deu 4:19).
The practice of it, as stated above, had its natural place on the open roofs; it had also been abolished by force in the period of the decline of the kingdom (2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13); and had probably, before the spread of the Syro phnician service of Baal in Judah, been blended with this so as to form a syncretistic idolatry; comp. the name of Baal, Belsamen ( = ), in Hieron., Aug. in Jud., 3:449; comp. Plautus, Pnulus, v. ii. 67. Here also, as at the end of Zep 1:4, those who blend the service of Jehovah with idolatry (comp. 1Ki 18:21), are mentioned along with the direct worshippers of idols: And the worshippers, who swear to Jehovah, and, at the same time, swear by their king. Swearing is, according to the Old Testament view, a sign of the service of God and part of the confession [of Him]. Isa 19:18; Amo 8:14. The Vulgate pronounces the consonants Milcom, which is the known name of the idol-god of the Ammonites. 1Ki 11:5. The Masorites read Malcm, by their king; and in keeping with this the LXX. translate it ; however, they hardly thought of an earthly king; they translate also (1Ki 11:7) the idol-god Molech by (comp. Jer 32:35 : ). This is the one here intended; at the same time we must assume that he had been admitted into the syncretism of the Ahaz Manasseh idol-worship in Jerusalem (2Ki 16:3). (According to the signification of the name he may as well have corresponded, in the southern cultus of Canaan, to the Baal of the northern cultus, vide Clln.) Here the name does not appear in the Canaanitish form Molech (LXX. Moloch), peculiar to the idol, but in the pure Hebraic form Melech. The prophet purposely changes the names of the idols, in order to characterize the worthless [das zusammengebettelte, scraped together by begging] and intrinsically baseless character of these idolatries as opposed to the worship of the One Jehovah. To the actual apostates he adds (Zep 1:6), the great number of the careless and despisers: and those who do not ask for Him, who by this negative conduct prove the apostasy of their hearts. Comp. 1Ch 15:13. [The whole of this entire enumeration (Zep 1:4-6) shows a gradual progress from gross external to refined internal idolatry. The Lord will destroy (1) the remnant of the idols of Baal; (2) the company of their servants; (3) the worshippers of the idols, who content themselves with altars without images, but worship publicly upon the house-tops; (4) the secret worshippers; (5) those who, without practicing idolatry, have apostatized from God in their hearts; (6) The indifferentists.Schmieder.]
The judgment comes upon all these, Zep 1:7 : Be silent before the Lord Jehovah. The graphic particle is borrowed from Amo 6:10 (comp. Zeph 2:17). The silence lies here, as in Hab 2:20, between the preparative announcement and the description of the judgment. While the prophet is deeply occupied in thinking of its coming, he assumes as it were the character of a herald of God, who first proclaims what is now about to come to pass, and then when it arrives he enjoins silence. That the silence serves as a favete linguis to the introduction to the holy sacrificial act (Hitzig), is a view borrowed not from the Old Testament, but from the profane classics. Keep silence, for the day of Jehovah is near. [This is the reason for the command to keep silence.C. E.]. Zephaniah makes his announcement culminate in the noted formula of threatening, which pervades prophecy from Oba 1:15 forward (comp. Joe 1:15; Joel 4:14), and at the same time gives along with it the theme for the subsequent representation. He immediately defines more precisely the character of this day: for Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice. is here, as in Isa 34:6; Jer 46:10 [and Eze 39:17C. E.], not an abstract of the verb , to slaughter (cdes, Ges., Thes., Maur.), but, as it is everywhere, a sacrifice. And, indeed, where it stands absolutely, it is synonymous with the fuller term. tech. , peace-offering; the kind of offering, in which only certain parts of the victim were burned and a feast prepared of the rest. [Hence in contrast not only to , the bloodless, and to , the sin-offering, but also to , the burnt-offering, Lev 17:8.] This connection of ideas suggests the clause: and has consecrated those whom he has invited. Krim, those who are invited to the feast, as in 1Sa 9:13. The heathen nations, whom Israel are about to destroy, are meant; hence the wider thought is taken from Isa 13:3, that they are consecrated by God for the destruction of the impious one ( , Theodoret): they come not only as allies, but also as executors of the holy act in consideration. On the day of God there will also be brought by holy hands a holy offering, and it will be consumed by those whom God has invited: but the victim is not an animal, but his people; those who slay it are not priests, and those who feast on it are not confederates of the people, but strangers.
Zep 1:8-13. The first detailed statement in the amplification of Zep 1:7. The Three Acts of Punishment. The first, Zep 1:8-9, falls upon the princes, who indulge in the customs of the heathen. And it shall come to pass …. upon the mighty ones, the dignitaries of state, the heads of tribes and families, from whose opposition, as was formerly the case with the reforms of Hezekiah (Micah 3), so also now those of Josiah were likely to meet with their strongest resistance, and who, in influence, might indeed surpass the royal princes, as is the case in the present day in the kingdoms of the East. Hence these latter are mentioned in the second place. The sons of Josiah (1Ch 3:14), Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, being both still of a tender age, cannot be meant, but only brothers or uncles. Hitzig. Comp. Introd. 1. The reason why the judgment is to fall upon these especiallythe king is exempted (comp. 2Ki 22:18 ff.)immediately follows: upon all, who clothe themselves with foreign apparel. Mihi non dubium est, quin illo vo alii gyptios in vestitu imitarentur, alii Babylonios, prout huic aut illi genti studebant. Drusius. The strange apparel shows the estranged heart; the infringement of the popular manners and the contempt of the national costume evince the decay of the national spirit. Moreover the law by no means treats of clothing as an adiaphoron (Deu 22:11; Lev 19:19). And so then among these princes it appears that the desire after strange clothing goes hand in hand with the desire of the heart to apostatize from the worship of the true God, Zep 1:9 : And I will visit in that day every one that leaps over the threshold. It belonged to the ceremonial, in the worship of the Philistine god Dagon, to leap over the temple threshold, which was considered sacred and not to be touched (1Sa 5:5). The Chaldan briefly paraphrases it: all who follow the usages of the Philistines. Those who fill the house of their lords with violence and deceit. As the prophet was speaking of leaping over the threshold, the connection requires that we look for the house behind this threshold, and consequently that we understand the lords to mean idols, whom they serve and to whom they carry their unjustly acquired treasures. , according to the signification of the word, is equivalent to (comp. the plural , 1Sa 7:4). So also Clln; Hitzig would understand the passage so as to mean that those who are reprehended regard the palace of the king as an idol-temple, and bring into it deceit and violence. But that would be a pompous way of expressing it; and Josiah would hardly have suffered it. In a similar way Bucer, Ewald, and Keil [understand the passage]. The conjecture that ordinary servants and masters (Strauss) are meant, does not agree with the context.
[Keil: In Zep 1:9 a, many commentators find a condemnation of an idolatrous use of foreign customs; regarding the leaping over the threshold, as an imitation of the priests of Dagon, who adopted the custom, according to 1Sa 5:5, of leaping over the threshold when they entered the temple of that idol. But an imitation of that custom could only take place in temples of Dagon, and it appears perfectly inconceivable that it should have been transferred to the threshold of the kings palace, unless the king was regarded as an incarnation of Dagon,a thought which could never enter the minds of Israelitish idolaters, since even the Philistian kings did not hold themselves to be incarnations of their idols. If we turn to the second hemistich, the thing condemned is the filling of their masters houses with violence; and this certainly does not stand in any conceivable relation to that custom of the priests of Dagon; and yet the words who fill, etc., are proved to be explanatory of the first half of the verse, by the fact that the second clause is appended without the copula Vav, and without the repetition of the preposition . Now, if a fresh sin were referred to here, the copula Vav, at all events, could not have been omitted. We must therefore understand by the leaping over the threshold, a violent and sudden rushing into houses to steal the property of strangers (Calvin, Ros., Ewald, Strauss, and others), so that the allusion is to dishonorable servants of the king, who thought that they could best serve their master by extorting treasures from their dependants by violence and fraud (Ewald). , of their lord, i.e., of the king, not of their lords: the plural is in the pluralis majestatis, as in 1Sa 26:16; 2Sa 2:5, etc.C. E.]
The second act of punishment, Zep 1:10-11, falls (11 c) upon the rich. And it shall come to pass that a woeful cry shall be heard from the fish-gate, which also occurs in 2Ch 33:14; Neh 3:3; Neh 12:39, and which, according to Hieron., led to Joppa, so that the nearest way to the sea passed through it; according to Neh 3:3, however (comp. Robinson, Pal., ii. 118), it did not lead westward, but northward from the city; and howling from the lower city. The New city, literally, the second city, is the name of a part of the city (2Ki 22:14; comp. Neh 11:9; Jos., Ant., xv. 11. 5), probably of the suburb situated to the north (lower city, Robinson, Strauss), in which the Fish Gate was situated, and whence from the natural situation,for on the other side Jerusalem is protected by the ground,the attack of the enemies was to be expected. [See note 5 on Zep 1:10.C.E.] And great destruction from the hills. taking the place of the verb, as in Nah 3:2, is construed, according to the sense, with all three substantives;
Zep 1:11. Howl, ye inhabitants of the Mortarevidently, from the context, also a section of Jerusalem, but whose situation cannot be more exactly defined. . a mortar, then a cavity, as, e.g., that in which the teeth are set (Jdg 15:19), will, understood as a locality, designate that part of the city situated in the hollow (Theodotion: ); and it lies, we may suppose, nearest to the valley between Moriah and Zion, the locality subsequently known as the Cheesemongers valley [Tyropon]. For all the merchant people are silent, entirely destroyed (Psa 49:13; comp. also Zep 1:7 above), cut off are all those that are laden with silver. The context, which is concerned throughout with localities and wholly with the judgment of the city, shows that does not designate the inhabitants of all Canaan. And it is intended to consider Jerusalem indicated by Canaan as far as it is of a Canaanitish, i.e., of an idolatrous character (Hengstenberg, Strauss). On the other hand the parallelism shows that the people in question are rich. Accordingly we must suppose that , as in other places (Job 40:30 [A. V. Job 41:6]; Pro 31:24; comp. also, Oba 1:20), or even simply (Isa 23:8), designates the traders and merchants (Grot., Clln). That these as the more recent comers to the great city should dwell in the outlying new parts of it, is not strange, but natural. [If Hitzig were right in placing the New City, according to the Targum, on Ophel, then it would be still more natural and still more characteristic to seek for the dwellings of the merchants here also. Comp. above, p. 68 a, and Mat 21:12.] [Keil: The name mortar was probably coined by Zephaniah, to point to the fate of the merchants and men of money who lived there. They who dwell there shall howl, because all the people of Canaan are destroyed. These are not Canaanitish or Phnician merchants, but Judan merchants, who resembled the Canaanites or Phnicians in their general business (see at Hos 12:8), and had grown rich through trade and usury.C. E.]
The third act of punishment (Zep 1:12-13), falls upon the careless despisers. And it will come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles. Theodoret: , . And I will visit the men, who lie upon their lees,like old wine which is not drawn off (comp. Jer 48:11),and say in their hearts: Jehovah does no good and no evil. He may perhaps exist, but He does nothing to us. expresses the spiritual obduracy of those who deny the agency of God in the world (Jer 10:5), and who, in the opinion that chance governs the world, despise exhortation and warning, and live from one day to another.Hitzig. By such practical denial of the judgment (comp. Psa 10:11 f.), they call it down upon them (comp. Ps. l. 21 ff.).
Zep 1:13. Their goods, in which they take pleasure, will become plunder, in the midst of the wild alarm of the owners, and their houses desolation. Andwhat the law and the prophets predicted (Deu 28:30; Amo 5:11) is fulfilled,they will build houses and not dwell in them, and plant vineyards and not drink their wine. The apodoses contain the proper threatenings in the future; thereby the preterites receive in the protases the signification of the Fut. exactum.
Zep 1:14-18. Second detailed statement in the amplification of Zep 1:7. The Dreadfulness of the Day of Judgment. The day of Jehovah is near, the great [day] (Joe 2:14 (11 ?)) it is near and hastes greatly. is not the participle with omitted (Hitz.); but the adverbial infinitive (Joe 2:5) construed with the verb (comp. Ew., sec. 280 c). Hark (as in Nah 3:2), the day of Jehovah? What is to be heard? bitterly cries the hero there. [ before yom Yehvh (the day of Jehovah), at the head of an interjectional clause, has almost grown into an interjection (see at Isa 13:4). The hero cries bitterly, because he cannot save himself, and must succumb to the power of the foe. Keil.C. E.] is not purely local, but generally indicates the situation like our there [da]. Comp. Nah 3:15; Psa 14:5. a day of wrath is that day (Isa 19:18), a day of anguish and pressure (Job 15:24) a day of desolation and devastation (Job 30:3; on the emphatic reduplication compare Nah 2:11); and it is accompanied not only by terrible signs of destruction upon earth, but also by the troublous agitation of the elements: a day of darkness and gloom (Joe 2:2), a day of clouds and of cloudy darkness (Deu 4:11)a day of the reappearance of Jehovah amidst the same signs as on Sinai. Comp. on Habakkuk 3.
Zep 1:16. A day of the trumpet and of the war cry [des Geschmetters, battering]. The sound of the trumpet introduces Gods holy festival (Num 29:1 ff.; comp. Zep 1:7 above); it is the signal for the proclamation of Gods power over the sinful people (Hos 8:1); it is the war-signal of desolation (Amo 2:2). All three significations are realized in the day of Jehovahs holy sacrifice; and the last especially (comp. Jos 6:5) over the fortified cities and high battlements, behind which the wicked people vainly imagine themselves secure (Mic 5:10 [11]).
Zep 1:17. Yea, I will put the people in distress, so that they will walk like blind men,groping about here and there as insecurely (comp. l) Deu 28:29; Nah 2:5),for they have sinned against Jehovah; so then their blood shall be poured out (term. technicus in legislation pertaining to sacrifice, comp. Zep 1:7) like dust,in such quantity (Gen 13:16) and with such contempt (2Ki 13:7),and their bowels (comp. 2Sa 20:10, properly the contents of the bowels, their food, equivalent to , Job 20:23. So also Strauss, Clln, Gesenius, Ewald; Hitzig, according to the Arab., their flesh), like dung.
Zep 1:18. Neither their silver, nor their goldall the classes, whom the prophet, Zep 1:8 ff., declared obnoxious to the judgment, were somehow entangled in silver and gold,will deliver them ( , neither, nor, as in Exo 5:14. Compare the repetition of the whole passage, Eze 7:19), in the day of Jehovahs fury; and in the fire of His wrath (comp. 2Ki 22:17), shall the whole earth be devoured; for He will make an end, yea (, as in Psa 73:1), a sudden one, to all the inhabitants of the earth. construed, like Zep 1:8, as a second accusative; literally, He makes all the inhabitants of the earth a destruction.
Chap. 2. Zep 2:1-3. The Exhortation. The first words, , are an old famous crux interpretum. Interpreters derive them from the root , to which the subst , stubble, belongs; and from which a Poel , Exo 5:7-12; Num 15:32 f.; 1Ki 17:10-12, with the signification of gather, is found. From this the Hithp. reflexivum combined with the Kal for the purpose of strengthening it (comp. Isa 29:6; Hab 1:5), may be derived in the present instance. Some attempt, in the most different ways, to bring into the context the signification of gather. Either, collect yourselves in the devotional sense [applied to that spiritual gathering which leads to self-examination, and is the first condition of conversion. Keil.C. E.]; as we use the word in German (Strauss, Keil); or, withdraw, keep yourselves at a distance, sc. from that which is unclean (Hitzig); or assemble yourselves, sc. for a fast [Bussfeier, a penitential solemnityC. E.] (Chald., Syr., Hier., Clln). It is scarcely to be denied that by all these interpretations violence is done to the words, and yet in the end no suitable meaning is evolved. In view of these difficulties it seems to me that we should, without hesitation, have recourse to the root, , from which the Hebrew is possessed of the derivative , bow, which in Arabic (namely, in the v. conj. corresponding to the Hithp.) has the signification of incurvatus est. The forms are then Hithpolel and Polel (=, comp. , instead of , Job 31:15), unless one prefers to consider the Dagesch forte in as a Masoretic addition, and the form as imperative Kal. Accordingly, we translate [the words], bend yourselves, bend (comp. the , the bent, Zep 1:3); and this translation agrees well with the following vocative clause: O nation, (article in the voc., Ges., sec. 109, Rem. 2), that dost not grow pale. The primitive signification of the root, , is pallescere (comp. ); and this signification is, evidently to be preferred in this place (Grot., Ges., Clln, Ew., Hitz., Keil) to the more common one to long after (Rosenm., Hv., Strauss). The people that do not grow pale (comp. Isa 29:22; Pro 7:13) are the insolent, audacious people (LXX. ) who sit erect, at ease upon their money bags (comp. Zep 1:12); and whom the prophet hence exhorts to bend themselves, before the stroke comes from above.
Zep 1:2. Before the law bring forth. [This is the reason for the appeal, Zep 1:1.C.E.] The law is neither the appointed time (Clln), nor yet the statute of the prophecy, the decree declared in it (the other interpreters), but, as in Mic 7:11, the Mosaic Law, in specie Deuteronomy, which is most familiar to our prophet; that which it brings forth is the curse, which it places in view, the day of wrath itself (Deu 31:17). For everything brings forth what is in it: the earth brings forth plants (Isa 55:10): the wicked, mischief (Job 15:35). And this bringing forth on the part of the law will come with unexpected speed: Zep 1:2, as swiftly (Isa 29:5) as chaff does the time pass away, which still remains for repentance. It is evident that we must understand by in this place also, as in chap. 1, the judgment day (Strauss); but the agrees only with the interval of time passing rapidly away; the word does not mean to approach, to draw on, not even in the passage, Nah 3:19, cited for that purpose [to prove that it means to approach, etc.C. E.] by Strauss. After this short parenthesis the prophet resumes the structure of the sentence with which he commenced: before the wrath of Jehovah …. come upon you.
Zep 1:3. Seek Jehovah, all ye humble of the land: , an idea very frequent in the lsalms, at first rare in the prophets, but then always coming prominently into view: the quiet, the humble in the land, whose righteous conduct is especially manifested in their separation from the proud (Zep 1:8 ff.) in lowliness and humility before God (comp. Mic 6:8),Ye who have observed his right [lawC. E.]have not loved strange apparel and practiced idolatryseek righteousness, seek humility: the exhortation is addressed to all, who in general are still willing to hear (comp. Zep 1:1): perhaps you may yet be hidden in the day of Jehovahs wrath.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The separation of the godly-minded race from the ungodly-minded is a fundamental principle [Grundpfeiler, foundation-pillar] of the order of the kingdom of God. When both races were at the first intermingled, the fruit of the union was the Delude (Genesis 6.). Hence nothing was so distinctly enjoined by God when He founded his kingdom anew with Abraham and Moses as the going out from fatherland and kindred, the segregation, in one word the sanctification of the nation for Himself. But gradually, during the decline of the kingdom, the amalgamation of the kingdom of God and of the idolatry of the world again crept in. A clear separation between the nature of Jehovah and that of idols is yet scarcely possible, and the substance of the national life is infected by the godless influences that had flowed in; partly, in such a way that the community make themselves guilty of idolatry, partly because a corrupting deposit of complete indifference was formed. Therefore, Zephaniah announces a new deluge. Comp. Zep 1:2 f. with Gen 6:7.
Religion and morality are two spheres which cannot be separated. An upright heart can have only one God, and in cherishing other gods besides God lies a falseness, which bears its fruit in the field of morals. Whilst the heart, in its profoundest depths, is actuated by two diametrically opposite opinions, it is necessary that these influences should finally neutralize one another. In this way arises indifference toward motives drawn from eternal things. This indifference has a twofold result: First, temporal motives, among which the most powerful are pride (fashion) and avarice, take the place of eternal. In the second place, the other result of this fearless, practical atheism is: God does no good and no evil.
In the O. T. atheism has always its baneful effect in the sphere of the practical. It is not so much a denying of the divine existence, as of the divine judgment. Comp. Psalms 14. As the wisdom of the pious man is fear of God, so the folly of the godless man is fearlessness of God. The godless say in their hearts: God does no evil and no god (Zep 1:12). What does the phrase, in their hearts, mean? Although shame and fear deter men from publicly exhibiting their unrighteousness, yet they utter those thoughts secretly, and are of the opinion that God either does not exist, or that He sits tranquilly in heaven. This is the very climax of godlessness, when men, intoxicated with sensual pleasure, divest God of his office of judge: when He is not recognized as judge, what remains of his godhead ? The majesty and the kingdom of God do not consist in any visionary splendor, but in duties, which belong so entirely to Him alone, that they cannot be separated from his being. To Him it belongs to own, to govern the world, to care for the human race, to distinguish between good and evil, to succor the miserable, to punish crime, to suppress unjust power. He who deprives Him of this retains an idol. Calvin. The theocratic atheism8 is foreign to the O. T., as in general abstract thinking is not a Biblical idea. When the Scripture speaks of thinking, it includes the will with it, and gives us to understand that thinking and willing are one and the same act in man. For a living man so thinks, that he at the same time loves, hates, hopes, fears the thing of which he thinks, is inclined or averse to it; he so wills that he wills , and he cannot will, without at the same time thinking of that which is willed. The thoughts do not pre cede the will, but they include it, and are in a certain manner intellectual acts of the will. It is evident that neither the imagination and purpose (Gen 6:5), nor the doubting or joyful thoughts, nor the crafty and especially political thoughts. (Pro 12:5), nor, in general, the word with its derivatives, can be correctly interpreted if we separate the will from them. It is nowhere said that thoughts have guided, disordered, or misled the will; but it is said that man is misled by them, or walks after them. The Scripture ascribes also to the thoughts malice, injustice, and perversity, which could not be done, unless they were, at the same time, acts of the will. Roos.
As the error of atheists is act [practical], so also they can he made sensible of it only by act. The light, under which they apprehend it, is likewise the light of the approaching judgment, with which God punishes them. They are accustomed to look upon everything that happens, in a fatalistic manner, as a necessary cycle of sowing and harvesting, of building and possessing, and to disregard the factor of divine grace lying at the foundation of the whole. Therefore God must break up at once this cycle; He must cause the fruit to fail the seed, the inhabitancy to fail the building: then they become aware that He exists. Then the insolent heroes cry bitterly.
The most pernicious fruit of indifference is the shamelessness, which no longer turns pale. Shame is the first prophetess, when thou turnest aside, the first that beckons thee back again to the land of peace,[it is] consciousness of guilt, an arrow of conscience, a ray of God Almighty in the very act, a turning back of the course of our blood and thoughts, of our sea of emotions and instincts; a of our body. Herder. As the extinction of shame indicates, in the individual man, the beginning of a hopeless condition, so does it also in the life of a nation. So long as the whole body of the people retains a feeling of shame, many individual, even heinous sins, may be borne, without serious injury to the whole. But if that ceases, then the enormity of individual crimes, considered, in comparison with earlier times, may perhaps prove a kind of progress in civilization, and yet the condition of the whole may have become thereby a much more vicious one. Even that progress commonly lies in the laxity of the moral judgment.
However unexpectedly the acts of God come, their seeds, nevertheless, always exist anyhow already in the present, and they are disposed into the continuity of one divine guidance of the kingdom from the beginning forward. The seed of the judgment lies in the law. This fact implies that the judgment is not merely a negative, but a positive act of God. It is a birth, although a birth under the form of death.
The decisive turning-point, which from the Old Testament history of the kingdom takes the direction of that of the New Testament, is the abandonment of the nation as such by the prophets. Zephaniah discriminates between an ecclesia in the ecclesia, and this exhortation, so far as hope is expressed in it, is intended for this congregation of the lowly and humble.
With this begins the stand-point of the abandonment, which, continued by the later prophets, has its ultimate fulfillment in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. At the same time a Messianic progress lies in this apparent retrogression. Because, viz., the internal condition of a humble mind takes the place of the external one of national relationship, a new point of view determines their adoption to salvation. In this view even those who are not Israelites may fulfill the preliminary conditions of salvation (Act 10:35). To the Anavahhumility well pleasing to Godbelongs also the renunciation of the particular privileges of descent from Abraham.
Cocceius: The day of the Lord, in the widest sense, is that time in which God proves Himself as King, Lord, and Judge: in a narrower sense, it is that day which all the prophets have longed to see,the day of the appearance of God in the New Covenant. Accordingly the day of the Lord is to be understood principally of the advent of the Messiah in the flesh, which is connected with the judgment upon the unbelieving; but moreover it is also to be understood of the immediate forerunner of that day. So Zephaniah announces as its precursor and herald another day along with the destruction of offenses, and purification by means of the Babylonian captivity. And where the prophets speak of the times after the advent of Christ, the day of the Lord is the last judgment day, which times, like the destruction of Jerusalem and the Reformation, precede, like trumpets, and announce the coming of the Lord to the kingdom of the world and to the final judgment.
Strauss: Thus a sacred edifice is built before our eyes, whose foundation stands on Gods righteous love and our sin; to which every act of punishment and every manifestation of grace adds a stone, on which finally, after the close of all history, the crown is set by the judgment of the world.
HOMILETICAL
What must we do in order to escape (Zep 2:3) the coming wrath (Zep 1:2; Zep 3:7)?
1. Seek righteousness: turn yourselves
(a) From the unrighteousness of a divided heart, which would give a part to God and a part to idols (Zep 1:4-5.)
(b) From the unrighteousness of a cold heart which does not care for God, and deprives Him of the honor due to Him. (Zep 1:6.)
2. Seek humility: turn
(a) From the pride of sensual pleasure, (Zep 1:8-9.)
(b) From the pride of avarice, (Zep 1:9-12.)
3. Do it speedily, for
(a) The day is coming shortly, (Zep 1:14 ff.)
(b) Helpless is the situation of those who meet it unprepared, (Zep 1:17; Zep 2:1.)
(c) The Word of God is unchangeable. (Zep 2:2 a.)
(d) The time quickly passes away. (Zep 2:2 b.)
On Zep 1:2 f.: We have in the best case our pleasure in the wonderful power and wisdom of God, who has made all things in the world so glorious, and who governs them so well. We think too little of the fact, that as everything is from Him, so He can make an end of everything at once. To the godless man, who does not see in the universe the creative hand of one God, the whole world is a heap of ruins. No wonder that he feels, in judgment and in death, as if the ruins were falling over him. To the pious man, however, in this painful moment, the anticipative recognition of the divine ordering [of the worldC. E.] is a strong support [sule, pillar]: he has consolation in his death. Pro 14:32. How much has God to judge in thy heart, if He will destroy the remnant of Baal. The service of the one God is the most simple, and yet for the regulation of life the most difficult; all are involuntarily syncretists, and the heart is full of altars. How many a one kindles a fire for the truth, but in the impure flame one must perceive that the altar, on which he kindles it, is erected, not to God, but to the idol of his sordid zeal. Every idol is a master; one may call it Baal, or Moloch, or Adon (Zep 1:9): the meaning of the words is the same; he who does not serve God is all the more a slave. (Rom 6:16-19.) And his is indeed a slavery to unrighteousness, for none of the idols which we honor has surpassed us in anything, that we should be under obligation to recompense it.Zep 1:6. He who does not ask after God, is to be considered eo ipso an apostate. There is an indifference in external peace, which is worse than direct hostility against God, because more hopeless. He who flatters such indifference, as if it were piety, is also a servant of unrighteousness.Zep 1:7. One thing is wanting in this sacrifice of the Old Testament,the purity of the victim. The perfect sacrifice of the divine judgment of wrath is Jesus Christ. In this God has also sanctified his guests; in spite of themselves and without knowing it, Caiphas and Herod and Pilate are obliged to bear testimony to God.Zep 1:8 f. Those who wear soft raiment are in kings houses. Even where a righteous king rules, court air is a dangerous air, and whoever is placed in it must keep a threefold watch over his heart; that he do not fall into vicious habits; that he do not practice idolatry with earthly things; that he do not, without intending it, by means of adulation, partisan conduct, or by laziness, heap up deceit and crime. An upright heart finds the way even here (Jer 38:7 ff.). An evangelical minister should not dishonor the house of his God by a strange dressing of his body and imitation of strange ceremonies. Whoever thinks to increase the property [Habe] of God by dishonest means, legacy-hunting, etc., makes God an idol.Zep 1:10 f. Trade and traffic are good things; but they are not the pillars, on which a kingdom stands firm.Zep 1:11. If men allow the light to go out in their heart and conscience (Psa 119:105), God must set up his light. Although they do not come to the light, yet the time is coming when they will not be asked whether they will come or not.Zep 1:12. A knowledge of Gods existence does not determine the salvation of the soul. With it the soul may become corrupt and perish. The life of man is action, and piety is found, where the will conforms itself to the acts of God. Such a man cannot remain at ease, for in the kingdom of God there is everywhere much to do.Zep 1:13. It is painful to be obliged to forsake his goods and the work of his hands. And yet this is the lot of all, who have obtained possession of only earthly things, and who have been occupied with earthly things. They come to the judgment with hands entirely empty. For such (Zep 1:14) the day of God is always too near. Then all those, who, as long as they were in full possession of their earthly goods and powers, were esteemed by every one mighty heroes, become cowards. For what they esteemed power was not their own.Zep 1:15 ff. How does he quake, who from all his possessions, plans, and devious ways has been cast into the solitary prison. What must it be only to be inclosed by Gods prison? There even the stoutest bulwarks of the heart break in pieces before the sound of Gods trumpet. There even the most ingenious plan is like the groping of a blind man. For the things with which man is accustomed to plan and to act, refuse their service. There even the most audacious head must bow (Zep 2:1).Zep 1:2. We need not tremble before the dark powers of the world, which are pregnant with mischief and destruction; but before that, by which the law of God, which judges us, is pregnant. Thanks to God that He himself has begotten the Son, who has destroyed the curse engendered by the law. But make haste to be saved. In the whole Gospel we read only of one, who was saved at the twelfth hour; for how many has the time passed away. In the O. T. the day of the Lord is the day of wrath: in the N. T. it is the day of joy.Zep 1:3. Mere humiliation and fear are of no use; by them one may attempt many foolish expedients (Mic 6:6 ff.; Gen 4:13 ff.; Mat 27:5). Positive action must accompany them: the seeking of God with the whole heart and an assurance of deliverance founded on faith. It is no contradiction, therefore, when it is said, Ye humbled ones seek humility. The disposition produced by the preaching of judgment must become conscious action and steadfast way.
Luther: Zep 1:4. The pious king effected the much, that idolatry did not rule. Nevertheless some always remained. And we have no reason yet to hope, that, were we going to suppress all ungodly practices in the same way, all men would become pious. For if that could have been done, it would certainly have been done by this king, who was considered preminently faithful, over the law and service of God. The Chemarim were a remarkable people and well disciplined in the idolatrous service, for they took their name from their earnest and great devotion. They produced an erroneous opinion among the people, that they were of all others the most assiduous in religion and divine worship. I am entirely of the opinion that they were such people as the monks of the present day are.Zep 1:8. It is evident that he speaks of the most powerful, who imitated the foreign customs, dress, and manners of the surrounding countries, abandoned their native manners, usages, and dress, just like the Germans of our time, who are apes of almost all nations. But this is a proof of a great frivolity and of an unstable disposition Magnisque negation, stare diu (Zep 2:3). This prophet, beyond all others, urges humility. He knows well that only the lowly please God, and that, on the contrary, the proud, pompous, and hardened despisers displease him.
Starke: Zep 1:1. God bears with the ungodly for a time and does good to them by pious magistrates and preachers, in order that He may thereby lead them to repentance.Zep 1:2. To human eyes it certainly appears that war arises from this or that quarrel among men, but the Scripture teaches us that the exciting cause of all wars is the sin and guilt of the land, by which God is moved to vengeance. There is no calamity, which the Lord does not send (Amo 3:6).Zep 1:4. God is bound to no place. When the wickedness of men increases in a city, He causes it to be laid waste, though the true religion has long borne sway in it.Zep 1:5. The announcement that God would extirpate idolaters, who wished to unite idolatry with the true worship of God, could powerfully strengthen the faithful in their struggle. The true worship of God suffers no idolatry by the side of it. It is quite possible, that those who have been once born again may lose their faith and fall from the grace of God. Seeking and asking suppose a salutary knowledge of God, by which his goodness and kindness are tasted. When we have tasted these the longing after God becomes always greater; then we seek to know God always more and more truly.Zep 1:7. Ungodly people complain, when they are obliged to hear the divine threatenings on account of their sins, or to feel the hand of God, but pious people are still and bear the wrath of the Lord.Zep 1:9. He who brings unlawful possessions into his house, brings the divine curse with them.Zep 1:11. To ply trade is not wrong in itself; but God does not allow dishonesty in it to go unpunished.Zep 1:12. Those who are in the Church, and yet deny the divine omniscience, are worse than the heathen. Before destruction comes security. Wine is agitated and turbid, when it is poured out of one cask into another; but if it remains in one cask, it settles and produces tartar. So it is with hypocrites: they listen, to be sure, to the preaching of the prophets; but they do not allow themselves to be made uneasy thereby in their consciences, and become finally as hard as stone.Zep 1:14. God gives courage, and can take it away.Zep 1:17. That men err in counsel is a judgment of God.Zep 1:18. If the wrath of an earthly king is a messenger of death (Pro 16:14; Est 7:7), how much more the terrible wrath of Almighty God.Chap. 2. Zep 1:1. Though no man can become entirely perfect in piety here, yet we must see to it that we do not stand still in godliness, much less go back, but always advance and become more perfect from day to day. God has power to hide his own in the day of wrath upon the ungodly.
Pfaff: Zep 1:5. Those who swear by the Lord, and who say, as sure as the Lord liveth, are not meant alone, but those also who have sworn obedience and fidelity to the Lord and yet practice idolatry and also wish to unite the true with the false worship of God.Zep 1:8. The foolish imitation of foreign dress and fashions is a sign of great vanity and of a damnable pride. This vanity also will be punished. To build houses, to plant vineyards, to use the possessions of this world, is entirely right. But then they become a snare to him who does not consecrate his work by means of sincere conversion to the Lord.Zep 1:16. What terror will the day of the last trumpet produce among men! Let then the voice of this trumpet sound now in our ears, in order that we may, while it is yet the time of grace, turn to the Lord.Zep 1:18. Ye rich, your silver and your gold cannot deliver you in the day of Gods wrath. Seek then a possession which remains and endures forever.Chap 2. Zep 1:1. Nothing is more necessary and more useful for one who is desirous of his salvation, than self-examination. How much better is it that we judge ourselves before we are judged of the Lord.
Rieger: From the whole representation of the prophet one sees with what great earnestness that which is recorded (2Ki 23:25 ff.), was spoken: Josiah turned himself with his whole heart, with his whole soul, with all his might, to the Lord; yet the Lord turned not from the fury of his wrath and said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight. The like may often happen in one (Anions) reign that God will never cease until He has destroyed not only the ungodly, but also their offenses [that against which or by which a person meets with a falla stumbling-block, scandal. See Exeget., Zep 1:3C. E.], not only the sinful customs introduced by them, but also the places and houses, which have become to others ways to hell. How accurately does God know what a wicked heart all outbreaks of sin have as their source, since they do not even fear God, do not esteem Him, do not ask after Him. And again, how does He examine not only the hearts and reins, but observe also what kind of dress men wear. What does God often draw forth from that which is concealed as soon as He begins to search with candles. How little consolation do even great possessions give in the day of such wrath.Chap. 2. Zep 1:1 ff. At first the prophet must certainly have discovered something good among the entire hostile people by which they might still enjoy a mitigation in the day of judgment. But when there was little or nothing to be discovered among them, he nevertheless addresses those in distress, who, under the prevailing unrighteousness, had to suffer more than pleasure from it, and he rouses them, that they may not fall asleep over the necessity of the time, but seek the Lord, who conceals himself at such a time, and that with all the consolation of a good conscience in righteousness, they should nevertheless, though doomed to every kind of sorrow, resign themselves to humility. Although every one in such common calamities is involved in much trouble, yet there are exceptions enough, if one is so concealed, as, e.g., in the destruction of Jerusalem, was the case with the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 39:11 f.), Baruch (Jer 65:5), Ebedmelech (Jer 39:17 f.).
Burck: On Zep 1:1. God, therefore, permitted the reign of the pious Josiah to precede the final doom of Judah, in order that all excuse might be taken from the Jews. They might have said, Our kings compelled us to this and to that. If so, the answer was now ready: Josiah did not compel you, rather, as far as he could, he sought to turn you; but ye continued obstinate.
Theodoret: Zep 1:4. For as I (Jehovah) made fowls and fishes and cattle for the service of men, so will I destroy the former also with the latter. They are unnecessary where there are none to make use of them.
Hieron.: The dumb brutes also feel the wrath of God. When men and cities are destroyed, then one sees also that beasts, birds, etc., disappear. Of this Illyria, Thrace, and also Juda bear testimony. I come from the last named country, and there everything except heaven and earth and increasing wilderness has perished.
Schlier: Zep 1:4. Not much was gained by Josiahs reformation. Therefore the Lord himself will undertake a reformation.
Theremin: Zep 1:7. God Will first speak in the judgment. He will say, Ye had Moses and the prophets; ye had my words, which are light and life; why would ye not hear them? These reproaches will roll like thunder in the ears of the guilty. Then the thunders will be silent, and the judge will be silent, and a silence more terrible than the thunder will ensue,the silence of the eternal decision.
Abarbanel: Zep 1:11. Because the people have become like the Canaanites in sin, therefore, like them also shall they be driven out of Canaan.
Schmieder: The prophet uses the name of a part of the city (Mrser, mortar), in order to intimate that those who dwell there, are about to be brayed in this mortar.
Hieron.: Zep 1:13. He will leave nothing unpunished. If we read the history of Josephus, it is there written, how the princes, priests, and nobles were drawn from cloac, lurking-places, pits, and ditches, where they had concealed themselves in fear of death.
Keil: In the carnal repose of their earthly fortune they think in their hearts, that there is no God, who rules and judges the world, that everything takes place by chance, or according to inanimate laws of nature. They did not deny the existence of God, but they denied, in their disposition and conduct, the working of the living God in the world, they regarded Jehovah on a level with dead idols, which neither do good nor evil. Isa 41:23.
J. Schmid: The prophet employs such an accumulation of almost synonymous words in order to intimate on the one hand the certainty of the thing, and on the other to inspire the Jews with fear, and to deprive them of all excuse, that they have not been sufficiently warned, and that with suitable warning they would have sought the reconciliation of God.
Strauss: Zep 1:16. The sacrifice of joy (Psa 27:6),9 which the ungrateful people did not wish to bring, God himself now prepares. The power which of the trumpets sound continues irresistible; once it captured the cities of Judah, now it destroys them who were once captors.
Cocceius: Chap. 22 Zep 1:3. To seek God, i.e., to direct every wish, thought, and effort to this end, that one may know where He is and how holy He is, and what are his ways, in order that thou mayest exalt Him, and fleeing to Him enjoy Him as thy own. To seek righteousness, i.e., to wish to possess that condition, by which man is an heir of the kingdom of heaven,a condition which man does not have of himself. (Hab 2:4.) To seek humility, i.e., to seek that condition of soul, by which man renounces himself and his righteousness, trusts in God, and cheerfully forgives his neighbor for Gods sake.
Footnotes:
[1][Zep 1:2. , the infinitive of the verb with the Hiphil of the cognate verb . See Greens Heb. Gram., sec. 282, a. LXX.: ; Vulg.: Congregans congregabo.
[2][Zep 1:3., sing. ruina, Isa 3:6; plur. de idolis, Zep 1:3, Ges., Thes, s. v. , p. 721, b. LXX.: ; Vulg.: et ruin impiorum erunt; Luth.: sammt den Aergernissen, etc.; Kleinert: und die Trmmer.
[3][Zep 1:4., sacerdotes idotorum, 2Ki 23:5; Hos 10:5. Ges, Thes. s. v. , p. 693, a. LXX.: ; Vulg.: et nomina dituorum; Kleinert: die Namen der Pfaffen.
[4][Zep 1:5., pr. n. of an idol of the Moabites and Ammonites, e. g., and , Jer 49:1-3 But in Zep 1:5 and Amo 1:15, is an appellative, their king, e. g. Malcham. Ges.: Name der Gottheit der Ammonder, mit eig. ident., Jer 49:1-3; Amo 1:15; Zef. Zep 1:5. Frst: Heb. u. Chald. Handwrterbuch. LXX.: ; Vulg. Melchom; Luth. Malchom; Kleinert, Melech. See Smiths Dict. of the Bible, s. v., Malcham.
[5][Zep 1:10. (the second), Neh 9:9 et 2 Reg. 22:14, pars urbis secundaria vocabatur certa pars Hierosolymorum, fortasse nova qudam pars vel suburbium. Ges., Thes.. s. v., p. 1451, b. LXX.: Vulg.: a secunda; Luth.: von dem andern Thor; Kleinert: von der Neustadt. Smiths Dict. of the Bible: The mention of Huldah, the prophetess, introduces us to the lower city under the name of the Mishneh (, A. V. college, school, or second part). Vol. i. p. 994, b.
[6][Zep 1:11., literally the mortar, probably a deep hollow, so called from its resemblance to a mortar. See Exeget. Zep 1:11.
[7][Zep 2:1. : The LXX., Vulg., and Luth. translate these words, as if they were derived from , to gather; but Kleinert prefers to derive them from , to bend. Ges. and Frst take them from .C. E.]
[8][Kleinert has Der theokratische Atheismus: he probably wrote Der theoretische Atheismus.C. E.]
[9][The allusion to Psa 27:6 is better understood by the marginal reading, sacrifices of shouting. The Heb. word rendered shouting in Psa 27:6 is the same word employed by the prophet, Zep 1:16, and rendered alarm. In Lev 25:9 the same word signifies the sound of a trumpet. Hence the pertinence of the allusion to Psa 27:6 by Strauss.C. E.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter contains God’s judgments for divers sins.
Zep 1:1
O “The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.”
This verse is only an introduction to the body of the discourse contained in the prophecy. Some have thought that Zephaniah, in its extent of meaning, is alike the name given to Joseph, Zaph-nathpaaneah; a revealer of secrets. Gen 41:45 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Candle of the Lord
Zephaniah 1-3
“The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah” ( Zep 1:1 ).
Observe that the prophets never professed to tell what word of the Lord came to anybody else. That is the vital point; that is the point which we have all forgotten. Read the introductions which the men themselves wrote: where do they find their texts? In the mouth of the Lord. When does any prophet arise to say, “I am going to preach to you to-day from the words of some other prophet?” Because we have forgotten this, our preaching has become archaic, jejune, and fruitless. Why do not men tell us what the Lord has said to them? Why have we so little personal testimony, so little real heart-talk? Hath the Lord ceased to be gracious to his people? Has he concluded his parable? Does he never whisper to any of us? Is the function of the Holy Ghost exhausted? Where is the personal pronoun? The devil has persuaded us to disuse it, and thus become modest; and whilst we are modest he is vigilant and destructive. What can it matter to you what the Lord said to some man countless thousands of years ago, if you do not adopt it, incarnate it, stake eternal destiny upon it, and thus make it your own? If a prophet here and there had said, “I will tell you what the Lord said to me,” the case would have been different; but it is not so. Look at Isaiah: “The vision of Isaiah… which he saw.” How strong, how clear, how emphatic, how likely to be interesting to the highest point! Here is an eye-witness: this is the kind of witness we like to have: what I saw, what I heard, what I felt, how I handled: now we are coming into close quarters with eternal mysteries. These men are not about to becloud our minds with speculations, and abstractions, and finely-spun theories; they make oath and say then comes their affidavit. Have we any affidavit to make about God? Are we living upon a hearsay testimony? Is ours a providence by proxy? Did the Lord work wonders in the olden time, and hath he sunk now into forgetfulness of his people and his kingdom? Let sense answer. What does Jeremiah say? Jeremiah desires to comment upon the book of the prophet Isaiah? Not he. How, then, does he introduce himself? Like all the others, in a whirlwind, with the suddenness which begets attention: “The words of Jeremiah… to whom the word of the Lord came.” So we have two personal witnesses in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Did anybody else receive a communication from heaven, from God? Hear Ezekiel: “I saw visions of God.” Perhaps only these major prophets had these high chances, only they were majestic enough to see the morning for themselves, and other men must live upon the testimony of dead witnesses. Read, “The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea”; again, “The word of the Lord that came to Joel”; again, “The words of Amos”; again, “The vision of Obadiah”; once more, “The word of the Lord came unto Jonah”; again, “The word of the Lord that came to Micah”; and again, “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah.” What does the last of the prophets say? “The burden” of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.” We want personal testimony, personal religion. What is your life? What is mine? We are not called to recite old history, but to live our own life in the face of day. If a man’s religion be something that he has learned, it is something that he may forget; memory is not immortal: but if it be part of himself, if it be wrought into him by God the Holy Ghost, then long as life, or breath, or being lasts he can say, “I saw… I heard… I know.” And when men would battle with him in angry and pointless words, and plague him with metaphysical reasoning which he cannot understand, he can say, with a child’s simplicity, “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
Take care how you crush individuality out of the Church. It may be a very beautiful thing to smooth down all the hills and raise up all the valleys, and make this globe we call the earth into a shining surface; God did not make it so. Where does God approve monotony pure equality as between one distance and another, one colour and another, one set of circumstances and another? He works by contrast. He has made inequality an element in the education and development of the world. The Lord hath his mountains in the Church, and his valleys; those that are of note among the apostles, and names that are not known beyond the fireside, of which they are the strength and joy. Were a man to stand up now and tell us what the Lord had done for him we should listen to him with great doubtfulness. We have lost the genius of personality, we have lost that tremendous weapon of individual testimony; it may be rough, and it may have been put to rude uses, but it is a weapon or instrument which God has often approved. It is wonderful to notice where the point of consistency begins in all these individual testimonies. The witness is marked by strong personality, and yet read through from the beginning of Isaiah to the close of Malachi, and though you are struck by personality, and almost aggressive personality, by a voice that becomes now and then something approaching to clamorousness, there is a marvellous consistency in the whole prophecy. The prophets, many of whom never saw one another, never contradict each other’s testimony upon moral questions; the spiritual vision is the same, the moral testimony is undivided; every man speaks according to his own mental capacity and mental peculiarity, and yet every man speaks the word of the Lord. Not in the method of the utterance, but in the substance of the declaration do we find the unity of the Church.
The prophets are the same in connecting sin and judgment:
“I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast” ( Zep 1:2-3 ).
Why? Always because of sin; always because there has been wrong done. The Lord never shows his omnipotence ostentatiously, as who should say, Behold, a thousand thunderbolts are mine, yea, twice ten thousand thunderbolts await my word: behold the artillery of heaven, thunder and lightning and tempest. There is no such display of resources, no such vapouring of strength. It is when sin is done, and repeatedly done, yea, done until it rises to heaven’s very gates, that the Lord comes forth in judgment and in indignation, and overwhelms the adversary. We do not preach this consuming God now. There are persons who have left the church because the minister has declared the certainty of punishment. We now like the confectionery Gospel; specially do we like to be assured that, be lost who may, nothing can hinder our getting to heaven: as for the outsiders, they are vulgar, blatant atheists, and perdition is too good for them. We do not say this in words, but as we eat mouthful after mouthful of divine sweetness: we say it in significant and suggestive action. Still the great doctrine of judgment must be proclaimed by somebody; now and again there must arise a Zephaniah who hurls his thunder upon the age, and sees God enthroned in the majesty of judgment. Poor howling maniac! we will mock him and sneer at him, and pour upon him our elegant contumely; but he will await the awards of time; he speaks from the platform of eternity. Zephaniah is sure that nothing can ever change the law that bad seed means bad harvest. We shall have to empty the church before we can fill it. It is of no use to condemn the sins of the fourth century, to expose the heresies of early centuries, and forget the crimes that disgrace the day in which we live. Why dig up old Arius, drag him out of his grave, and pelt him with orthodox stones, and thus get a reputation for being extremely orthodox? I will not do it. If any preacher chooses to fool away his time in talking about Arius, let him do so. I will speak about the men around about me, the crimes that darken the day, the winter of injustice that makes it almost impossible to live. If the Church will make itself a terror to evildoers, it will become what Jesus Christ meant it to be, the living force of the day, the true tribunal where every man will get his deserts, whether he be good or whether he be evil.
The prophets were also at one in denouncing ceremonial hypocrisy. The people performed a good many things with their hands which they did not do with their hearts; and the Lord disbelieves them. The prophet says:
“The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests” ( Zep 1:7 ).
He turned out the nations they should not take his banquet and he called the heathen. This is what the Church will not do. This is the divine providence. When the Church did not conduct itself properly, the Lord swept it out, and called in the pagan, the Gentiles. We are the guests that succeeded those that were bidden, but who either did not obey or who corrupted the feast. If the people who are in the Church now are not the right people, get rid of them; go out into the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in. Above all things, let us get rid of respectability. The prophets, and Christ at their head, always condemned the religious hypocrites of their day.
Nor would the prophets be content when men substituted even one ceremony for another in a spirit of heathenish curiosity. When he saw the king’s children clothed with strange apparel, the prophet protested. What was the apparel of Israel? A band of dark blue upon the fringes, at the four corners of their garments that was all; but it marked the Israelite; it was a blue ribbon, but it indicated election, responsibility, and destiny. What did Israel say in the time of luxury? We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries; we will drop all these little signs and badges of Israelitish vocation, and we will send for the foreign fashions. That is what men always do in luxurious times. Oh, the fool’s talk we hear about the fashions from Paris! Be sure that the country is going down when women are foolish enough to say, “I got this in Paris.” Precisely the old heresy. And yet where is the woman strong enough, broad enough in mind, to say, “No, this is good homespun;” “This belongs to the mother country;” or, “I spun this myself”? I like to see the dear old grannies in the country spinning away at their wheels, and they perhaps never heard that there is such a place as Paris. These are the people that make a country strong and healthy. When we forget home industries and home necessities we are in danger of slipping off the badge of liberty, and forgetting the masonic password of progress. Beware of luxury; beware of unsanctified prosperity. It ruined Israel; it will ruin any nation. How will God search his people?
“I will search Jerusalem with candles” ( Zep 1:12 ).
Observe the minuteness; take note of the detail. It shall not be a general inspection of surface, but “I will search Jerusalem with candles”: every hole and corner shall be looked into motive, thought, purpose, far-away outlines of possible policies; they shall be discovered in their plasmic beginning, their first inceptions and suggestions. The Lord does not look generally over the world, and say, “It is very good” he goes into detail. The analysis of the Lord is terrible, unsparing; but if it be terrible in the process it may be comforting in the result, for, blessed be God, there are some men who have the best of themselves hidden far away under much superincumbent infirmity and sort of conduct that they themselves are unable to approve. There are men whose hearts can only be discovered by the candle of the Lord, and the Lord himself will say to some, “You are last, but you shall be first. There is in you a seed you yourselves hardly knew of; you have been looking at your external infirmities and difficulties, and struggles and temptations, and you have forgotten that right away down below all these there was a seed pod that shall grow up into fruitfulness and beauty in your Father’s heaven. God’s criticism is terrible because it is gentle gentle because it is terrible; it may even be a terror to evildoers, or an infinite comfort to those who want to do well.
How terrible is the searching of this candle! It finds out some who say in their heart, “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” That is the atheism we have to be on our guard against; unavowed atheism; men who say one thing with their mouths and another with their hearts. In this case the men are professing to believe in God, and yet they are saying in their hearts in silence, “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” The outward atheist can do the Church no harm; the man who is an avowed unbeliever, a vulgar assailant of faith, reverence, and religious purity, can do no harm; but the man who is inside the Church, who has a lip orthodoxy and a heart heterodoxy, he is the Iscariot who would sell his Lord. If you are not orthodox in your hearts, say so; if you do not believe these sublime verities of revelation, declare your unbelief, and go outside and assail the Church from an external position; do not remain in the Church and cause dry-rot in the sanctuary. If you have any doubts or difficulties about the holiness and the moral beauty and spiritual necessity of Christianity, out with them, speak them boldly; then they may be answered, and you may be comforted; but do not be professing to serve God with your hand while he is not in your heart. Better a blundering speculating faith and an intense moral sincerity, than a beautiful speculating creed, and a heart that has lost its integrity.
So the old prophets are still amongst us in their spirit, in their appeal, in their claim for righteousness, and in their proclamation of judgment for wrongdoing. The worst of us may repent. Christ Jesus, God the Son, died for me, for you, for the whole world, in every age, the just, for the unjust that he might bring us to God. I do not understand it, but I feel it; I could not fully explain it, but I need all the Cross. If there is a sinner out of the final punishment who needs all Calvary, I am the man. There be those who say, “How could Paul call himself the chief of sinners?” No man can call himself anything else who knows his heart, and feels what he might have been and perhaps what he would be if he could. I proclaim the everlasting Gospel salvation by sacrifice; life by death; peace by the atonement wrought on Calvary. Oh, mystery of righteousness; mystery of love!
“Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof” ( Zep 1:13 ).
The Lord will correct this atheism. We often think of speculation ending in nothing; often, indeed, speculation which begins in vapour ends in vapour: but in this case the people have departed from God in conduct as well as in theory, and therefore nothing short of physical punishment and material deprivation will meet the disastrous case. It is not to be supposed that God will punish men simply because they have changed intellectual opinions for what may seem to them to be honest reasons; it is when doctrinal departure injuriously affects the conduct that God lifts his rod and smites by way of recompense.
If we continue our perusal of Zephaniah we shall find that even in so furious a prophet there are strains of music worthy of Gospel days:
“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” ( Zep 2:3 ).
It is curious to observe how tentatively the prophet puts the possibility of good resulting from late repentance. How could Zephaniah suddenly subdue his tremendous fury and speak peacefully the words of divine pardon? It could not be easy for him to descend from the whirlwind, and take up his position as a preacher of goodness. Singular it is, as we have often had occasion to notice, how the prophets first boil in fury and indignation against all evil, and then how they settle down into tranquil assurances that if man will repent God will forgive. Everything in the Old Testament would seem to have an evangelical trend. However the prophet may begin, he is sure to end in evangelical music. It was right that indignation should be the first tone, because the people had wandered from God, not a little here and there, but iniquitously, with a full and determined purpose. But whilst the prophet looks upon man’s sin, he also turns his eyes to God’s grace; and, as in the New Testament so in the Old, where sin abounds grace doth much more abound. When Zephaniah opened his mission in such tones of tremendous threatening, we little imagined that he would be the speaker of promises to those whose hearts were softened in repentance.
In the third chapter we have words that are still truly and joyously evangelical. A curious trust is to be given to the people of God:
“I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” ( Zep 3:12 ).
However various the interpretations that may be put upon this sentence, it would seem to fall into harmony with the words of the Lord Jesus when he said, “The poor ye have always with you.” Poverty is not an external question relating to merely transitory circumstances; there is a mysterious providence about this placing of poverty in the midst of the nations; we cannot comprehend it; yet if we look at the educational and the chastening influences of poverty we may begin to surmise why the poor are left to us as a continual trust. As the sick-chamber is the church of the house, so the poor people in any community ought to draw out the tenderest solicitudes and sympathies of those who are prosperous in this world’s goods. Let us look out for opportunities of doing service to mankind, and we shall never fail to have field enough for the exercise of our fullest charity. A wondrous change is predicted by the prophet in these words:
“The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid” ( Zep 3:13 ).
We little expected this when Zephaniah opened his judgment. We expected the fire to devour every root, and that nothing would be left behind but white ashes; and lo! such has been the effect of the threatened judgment of God, that truth takes the place of lies, vice is displaced by virtue, and the mouth that was befouled with deceit is now found to be the instrument of purity and music. Do not despair of the worst. The worst should not despair of themselves Whilst we live we may pray; whilst we pray we may hope; whilst we hope we may at any moment see the delivering light, the very smile and welcome of God.
In the remaining paragraph Zephaniah takes up his harp, and smites it with a willing hand; yea, he lifts up his voice also, and commands the daughter of Zion to join him in holy song:
“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem” ( Zep 3:14 ).
Here fury ceases, and tranquil music fills the air, like a breeze from the better land. Nor is the exhortation expressive of a mere sentiment; it rather follows the assurance of a profound and glorious fact “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy.” For this reason Zion was to sing, Israel was to shout, and the daughter of Jerusalem was to rejoice with all her heart. A kind of heaven is promised to Jerusalem “Thou shalt not see evil any more.” Tell the mariner that no more shall the sea be lashed into a storm; tell the wayfaring man that no more shall the lion rise up suddenly in his path; tell the toiler that no more shall blight devastate his harvest; and he will have some idea of the joy that must have filled the heart of Jerusalem when the Lord predicted that evil should not be seen any more within the lines of her beauty, within the security of her defences. What great feasts the Lord provides his people! How rapturous is the music of reconciliation!
“The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” ( Zep 3:17 ).
This is more than the usual Hebrew reduplication of words; it means that the divine heart and the human heart are one; it means that the Gospel has prevailed over sin, and that earth is being lifted up day by day to the very gate of heaven. Remember the tenderness and the loving kindness of God.
“I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame” ( Zep 3:19 ).
To these miracles the omnipotence of God addresses itself; not to the healing of broken limbs or infirm members of the body, not to the restoration of sight and hearing and speech only, but to the obliteration of iniquity, to the forgiveness of rebellion, to the restoration of lost souls, will God address the almightiness of his love. The Lord did not build the universe that he might destroy it; wherever there are marks of destruction they are footprints of an enemy; the purpose of the Lord is to obliterate such footprints, to rebuild all shattered strength, to restore all marred beauty; and when the Lord has set himself to work out a purpose, who can withstand the pressure and the progress of his omnipotence? Let all evangelical thinkers and workers, yea, all evangelical men know that they are moving in the line of the divine intent. Let them nourish themselves with the fatness of the divine promises, and be assured that, come what may, the word of the Lord will ultimately prevail.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
I
THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH
INTRODUCTION AND INTERPRETATION
The prophet, Zephaniah, is the author, and he says that he was the great-great-grandson of a man named Hezekiah. He traces his genealogy back to the fourth generation, an unusual thing, for it was customary to give only the father’s name, but sometimes they gave the grandfather’s name. Here he styles himself, “The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah,” and it is altogether probable that he means King Hezekiah who reigned during the time Isaiah prophesied. Thus Zephaniah belonged to the royal family of Israel; a great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah. Such being the case, Zephaniah’s home was in Jerusalem among the nobility and the princes of the city. He was therefore familiar with the life of the princes, their habits, their religion, all of their idolatrous customs, and the fact that he himself was a prince and thus knew the life of the princes royal of Jerusalem, accounts for some expressions which we find in his book.
The date of this book was somewhere between 630 and 622 B.C. during the reign of “Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah.” It was probably before the discovery of the book of the law in the Temple, its promulgation and enforcement by the hand of the king, and the great reformations instituted by Josiah as a result of finding the book of the law. In this book we find that there were a great many idolatrous customs in Jerusalem among the people, which would hardly be probable after the reformation, which took place in the reign of Josiah. Thus we place it sometime after 630 B.C. and before 621 B.C.
Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah who began his prophecies about 628 B.C., in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, and prophesied until about 525 B.C., covering altogether a period of about forty years. Zephaniah was only a young contemporary of Jeremiah, and engaged in preaching and instituting the great moral reforms under Josiah. But Zephaniah makes no reference to Jeremiah.
The occasion of his prophecy was that which gave rise to the prophecies of Jeremiah also, viz: The sins of the people of Jerusalem, their idolatry, their oppression, their commercial greed, and generally, their social and their religious iniquities. It is to rebuke them, to warn the people of the punishment, and to predict the day of Jehovah and the fall of the city and nation that Zephaniah gives his word of prophecy. This punishment comes in the Scythian invasion, that horde of people from the far north which in innumerable multitudes poured down through Central Western Asia, devastating everything they touched Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and the kingdoms north thereof, Northern Israel to some extent, and the Philistine plain to the borders of Egypt, where they were bought off by the king of Egypt. That fearful scourge broke over the country in the time of Zephaniah.
The style of Zephaniah is good, and in some parts excellent. It is not equal to that of Nahum and much inferior to that of Isaiah. It resembles Isaiah in many respects, probably more than any other of the prophets, but he was not the equal of that superb, poetic, and literary genius. There are some words in the book of Zephaniah, say the Hebrew scholars, that are seldom used elsewhere, and some that are used nowhere else, which renders the interpretation difficult. Like Jeremiah, Zephaniah himself seems to put little confidence in the reforms instituted by King Josiah, knowing that those reforms were mainly external, imposed by the royal authority, and that the people’s hearts were not changed. Zephaniah seems to have thought that the reforms that had already been instituted by Josiah were ineffective. They did not touch the heart of the nation. Therefore, he made no mention whatever of them.
In the book of Zephaniah we have the fullest description, up to this time, of the day of Jehovah, that day which the people in Amos’ time were looking for and wished for, but which Amos said was the very opposite of all they expected. It was a day of doom for the nation. Zephaniah gives us a fuller description of it, and we have in his prophecy the merging of prophecy and apocalypse, for there are some passages in Zephaniah descriptive of the day of Jehovah that are almost apocalyptic, as Daniel and Zechariah in the Old Testament, and Revelation in the New Testament.
The following is an analysis of the book:
Introduction: Author and date (Zep 1:1 ).
I. The punishment of Judah and Jerusalem (Zep 1:2-2:3
1. The destruction universal (Zep 1:2-6 ).
2. Jehovah’s sacrifice (Zep 1:7-13 ).
3. The “day of Jehovah” described (Zep 1:14-18 ).
4. Warning and admonition (Zep 2:1-3 ).
II. The punishment of the nations (Zep 2:4-15 ).
1. Philistia doomed (Zep 2:4-7 ).
2. Moab and Ammon doomed (Zep 2:8-11 ).
3. Ethiopia and Assyria doomed (Zep 2:12-15 ).
III. The restoration of the remnant (Zep 2:1-15 ).
1. The incorrigible city (Zep 2:1-7 ).
2. Wrath against the nations (Zep 3:8 ).
3. Salvation of the remnant (Zep 3:9-13 ).
4. Joys of the restoration (Zep 3:14-20 ).
Zephaniah had a wide vision; he seemed to see all the world, and picture the doom that was to come upon all animate creation: “I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah. I will consume man and beast,” thus coming down to more details, according to the custom of Bible writers, first, a general statement, then a detailed statement, “I will consume the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked. And I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.” This is a statement of judgment that is to come and affect all nature and mankind.
Now he comes down to further particulars: “I will stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” They shall be involved in this general universal catastrophe that is to come in the day of Jehovah. Then further particulars: “I will cut off the remnant of Baal,” that is, Baal worship shall be exterminated and even the remnants of it shall be destroyed, “and the name of the Chemarim with the priests.” The Chemarim were a class of priests, who served in a form of idolatry with certain gods. It is supposed by some, with some probability, that the word refers to the black robes which the priests wore in that service. The word “chemarim” comes from a word which means darkness. Our word “chimera” has a similar root.
Then he goes on in verse Zep 1:5 “And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops,” a form of star worship or sun worship, imported from Babylonia or Assyria, and was practiced by the people upon their housetops right in the city of Jerusalem. “Them that worship, that swear to the Lord and that swear by Malcam,” or, by their king, who, like the people that were imported into Samaria after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, served Jehovah and served their own gods also. They had a sort of mixed worship, combining the worship of Jehovah with the worship of other gods, and there seems to have been that class in Jerusalem at this time who swore by Jehovah and by their king, or Malcam, or their Molech; we cannot be sure of the exact reference. ‘Then he comes down to another class: “And them that are turned back from following Jehovah,” the backsliders. And the last class he mentions is those that had not sought Jehovah nor inquired after him, the indifferent, the irreligious, godless ones. Thus he describes all the classes of sinners the indifferent, the irreligious, the backsliders, the worldly members that arc saved, yet trying to follow God and follow the world, the idolaters, and then the priests that in their black robes served the various gods.
Jehovah commands them to hold their peace at the appearance of Jehovah God, “for the day of Jehovah is at hand; for Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath consecrated his guests.” He means that the destruction of Jerusalem and of Judah will be Jehovah’s sacrifice in the day of Jehovah. And he goes on in Zep 1:8 , thus: “In that day of the Lord’s sacrifice I will punish the princes (for they were the chief sinners in Jerusalem) and the king’s sons,” not particularly the king’s sons nor the king. Josiah is on the throne, the best king Israel ever had. He is only a young man, and Zephaniah had no word against him; he was irreproachable and unblameable. But the king’s sons, the members of the royal family, not Josiah’s sons, (he was too young to have any sons grown up) but the immediate members of the royal family; the king’s sons are among the first to receive the punishment that comes when the day of Jehovah appears.
“And he will punish all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.” The young nobles of the city who sent for their robes to foreign countries, perhaps to Babylon, where they made the finest garments in all the world, as the society ladies today send to Paris for their best hats and dresses. The princes and the nobles of Jerusalem sent to foreign lands for their garments; Zephaniah condemns that thing.
In Zep 1:9 , he has a striking reference: “In that day I will punish all those that leap over the threshold, that fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.” “Leap over the threshold” is an obscure expression. There are two interpretations. One is that it refers to a superstitious custom of people who would not step upon the threshold of the house, but who would leap over the threshold into the house without stepping thereon, on account of a superstitious custom that arose because Dagon, the god of the Philistines, fell over the doorstep of the house, when the ark was taken in the days of Samuel.
The other, and I think the better interpretation, is that it refers to these young and rapacious princes who did not scruple to break the laws and customs, and even the sanctity of the threshold; who leaped over into houses and robbed them either by stealth or in a legal fashion, for there is such a thing as legal robbery. Unscrupulous men, who cared nothing for the sacredness of the threshold, but leaped over, trampling under foot all the sacred rights of the house and home and hospitality in their greed for gold. They “filled their master’s houses with violence and deceit” as a result of leaping over the threshold in their rapacity.
Now he goes on to describe the calamity that shall befall Israel, and the outcry: “a noise from the fish gate,” which was probably in the northeastern corner of Jerusalem, the most convenient gate to the Jordan Valley and to the Sea of Galilee from which they brought their fish to Jerusalem; “and a howling from the second quarter,” or a howling from the Mishneh, probably from “the new city,” the second part of the city, the new part where Hulda, the prophetess, lived, as we find in the book of Kings in connection with the discovery of the law. “And a great crashing from the hills,” that surround Jerusalem and upon which it is situated. Then he said, “Howl, ye inhabitants of Makesh” (or the mortar), and it probably refers to the valley that runs through the center of Jerusalem, called the Tyrolean Valley, between Zion, on one side, and Moriah on the other. “For all the people of Canaan are undone,” or perhaps, “the merchant people” are undone, for the word “merchant” comes from the same root as the word “Canaan.” A Canaanite was a merchantman, a trafficker. “All they that bear silver are cut off.”
The next two verses give a description of how the calamity comes upon the city: “It shall come to pass,” he says, “that I will search Jerusalem with candles,” or lamps, to find out just what the people are doing, to search out every individual, “and I will punish the men that are settled on their lees.” This is a figure taken from their custom of making wine. The wine when fresh and new was placed in vessels, and very soon there would gather in the bottom a thick sediment, and after that gathered for a little time, they would pour off the wine into another vessel and thus keep it fresh. If they allowed it to remain in the first vessel, it would soon become putrid and muddy, thick and unfit for use.
In this figure he describes the people as at ease and with plenty. It had been some fifteen or twenty years since the reign of Manasseh when they had the hard time, when Jerusalem was red with blood. Since then they had become somewhat wealthy; they had settled down and were taking it easy; they had wealth and prosperity and somewhat of luxury. Zephaniah says, the people thus settled down like wine, upon their lees, and had become thick and muddy, and their brain had become clouded and sluggish and their religious life dull and heavy; they were troubled with inertia. That frequently happens today with well-to-do people, in comfortable circumstances, who have this world’s goods, and have to some extent settled down on their lees and are taking it easy; churches that have fine houses, a fine preacher, and a fine choir, all their debts paid, sometimes settle down on their lees. The result is that church gets thick, muddy, inert, sluggish, stupid, and becomes putrescent and unfit for use. If we become respectable and comfortably situated, we settle down in self-satisfaction, congratulating ourselves on the fact that we are a very good people. People in this way become thick, and sluggish, and dull. That is the tendency the world over with mere respectability. That is the crying sin and shame of our church life throughout the world today. As soon as a church settles down and takes it easy it becomes dull, sluggish, disgusting. They have to be kept at work or they will soon become thick and unsavory. As Brother Truett says, you have to keep them on the run all the time, or they won’t go at all. “The Lord will not do good,” they say, “neither will he do evil.” We have our prayer meeting and revival services and some good deacon will say, “It won’t do any harm.”
He now goes on to speak of their punishment: “Their wealth shall become a spoil, and their houses a desolation; they shall build houses, but none shall inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards but none shall drink the wine thereof.” That is the sacrifice of Jehovah on that day when he comes in destruction and judgment.
The day of Jehovah is described in Zep 1:14-18 : “The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near . . . the voice of the day of Jehovah.” Its characteristic, its striking feature is this: “The mighty man,” the hero, the warrior, “crieth bitterly.” Then comes the full description of it: “A day of wrath, and trouble, and distress; a day of wasteness, desolation, and darkness, and gloominess; a day of clouds and thick darkness; a day of trumpet and alarm, against the fenced cities and against the high battlements.”
In Zep 1:17-18 he describes the distress that shall come upon men, how their blood will be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung; silver and gold will not deliver them; whose land shall be devoured and shall make a terrible end of all that dwell in the land.
Then follows the warning to the wicked and the admonition to the righteous in Zep 2:1-3 . The warning to the wicked is this: “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah’s anger come upon you.” Then he addresses the meek, the godly: “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” And they were hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger, for when the Scythians overran all that part of Syria, they passed down the Philistine coast and left Judah and Jerusalem untouched, and the godly remnant was hid in the day of Jehovah, for that was one of the days of Jehovah, as there have been many since, and will be yet more before the last day comes.
Philistia (Zep 2:4-7 ) is doomed and her land shall belong to Israel: “Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites.” We meet with this word “Cherithites” and also “Pelethites” in connection with the bodyguard of David and Solomon; they are constantly referred to during the period of the Divided Kingdom, also after the Exile. The people of this strip of territory who were called Cherethites, were evidently of Philistine blood, and by David and Solomon were made special bodyguards. We do not know for what reason, except that they must have been peculiarly fitted for tins duty. For centuries the Pope of Rome has had Swiss bodyguards; he will not trust Italians.
“The word of Jehovah is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will destroy thee; . . . the sea coast shall be pastures, with cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed their flocks there and shall dwell in the houses of Ashkelon for Jehovah their God shall visit them and bring back their captivity.” Zephaniah presupposes a certain captivity of Judah and when they return they shall inhabit not only all Judah, but the coast and the Philistine plain and dwell in the cities of the Philistines.
Ammon was doomed (Zep 2:8-11 ) because they bad reproached God’s people and had magnified themselves against their border; they were doomed to be destroyed. This is the same complaint which Amos, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel lodged against these people. “Moab shall be doomed to destruction because of her pride,” and Zep 2:9 says, “Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon shall be as Gomorrah, the breeding place of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation.”
The doom of Ethiopia is given in one sentence (Zep 2:12 ) : “Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.” The doom of Assyria is given in Zep 2:13-15 . This is the same subject which engrosses the attention of Nahum. Notice what Zephaniah says, Zep 2:14 , “And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds for he hath laid bare the cedar work.” And he describes the doom of Nineveh in the same terms that are afterward used to describe the pride of Babylon, and later on by John, to describe the pride of Rome, the last and greatest Babylon. “This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! everyone that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.” This idolizing of self is a very common characteristic of large and wealthy cities. Every great city has a peculiar form of pride. This was the spirit of Nineveh. And what the result? “How is she become desolate, a place for beasts to lie down in!”
Jerusalem is described as a city, incorrigible in its wickedness (Zep 3:1-8 ). In Zep 3:1-2 , he hurls his denunciation against her: “Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted! to the oppressing city!” Here is the charge: “She obeyed not the voice, she received not correction, she trusted not in Jehovah, she drew not near to her God.” Zep 3:3 gives the description of her rulers, princes, prophets, and priests: “The princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; the prophets are light and treacherous; the priests have profaned the sanctuary, and done violence to the law.” In spite of all that, “Jehovah in the midst of her is righteous; he will not do iniquity; every morning doth he bring his justice to light, he faileth not,” a beautiful passage, “but the unjust knoweth no shame.” Then he describes the desolation that is to come in Zep 3:6-7 , but Zep 3:7 , particularly, brings to us the idea of how incorrigible they were: “I said, Only fear thou me; receive instruction; so her dwelling should not be cut off, however I punished her, but they rose up early, and corrupted all their doings.” They would not receive correction; they were beyond that, utterly incorrigible. This is in essence the same things Jeremiah said at this time also.
Zep 3:8 brings before their minds the thought that the day of Jehovah is coming, “Therefore wait ye for me, saith Jehovah, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.”
The particulars of the salvation of the remnant are set forth in Zep 3:9-13 .Zep 3:9-10 tell of the people that shall come up to Judah and Jerusalem: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” That is what I am going to bring about in the future, and more than that: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my supplicants, even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering.” There is going to be a gathering from the far nations and my people shall come back. Then in Zep 3:11 he describes how the proud are to be cut off: “For then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride; and thou shalt no more be haughty because of mine holy mountain.” Zep 3:12 describes the remnant that shall be left: “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of Jehovah.” A remnant shall be saved, even in the day of Jehovah, in the midst of this universal destruction. In Zep 3:13 the remnant is described: “They shall do no iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” These are practically the same words that were used by the other prophets, Micah and Amos, particularly Micah.
Radical critics with scarcely an exception, say that Zephaniah did not write section Zep 3:14-20 ; that it was written during the exile or immediately after, by some writer who wanted to supplement Zephaniah’s prophecy and offset the picture which he had drawn. That is their theory, and as we have stated repeatedly, the thing that inspires that view is that they do not believe in real inspiration, an inspiration which enabled a man to see the future. A real revelation they virtually deny, and that is the reason they deny certain parts of these prophecies to these ancient writers.
The joys of the restoration are described in Zep 3:14-20 . This is a beautiful picture of the restoration, the blessed messianic age, very much like the pictures found in Isaiah 40-66. He says, “In that day,” which shows that the prophet is looking forward to a time which he sees in the future and describes it. Zep 3:14 begins: “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Jehovah hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy; the king of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not fear evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, “Fear thou not, O Zion, let not thine hands be slack. Jehovah, thy God, is in the midst of thee; a mighty one who will save.”
There are some good gospel texts here. “He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” Why? Because his love will now be reciprocated; his love will now be satisfied; it has its response; it has won its object, and he will rest and be at peace in his love; no more turmoil, no more anxiety; God has found his people and his people have found him; he will rejoice over them with singing.
Then he goes on with his description as to how they are to be gathered: “I will gather them that sorrow for the solemn assembly, who were of thee; to whom the burden upon her was a reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all them that afflict thee; and I will save that which is lame, and gather that which was driven away; and I will make them a praise and a name, whose shame hath been in all the earth.” And the last verses give another statement as to how this restoration shall take place: “At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring back your captivity before your eyes, saith Jehovah.”
This vision of Zephaniah compares favorably with the visions of other prophets. He had a broad vision, almost as broad as Isaiah’s, or Micah’s, in which they picture the mountain of the Lord’s house as exalted above all the hills, and all the nations flowing into it to receive the law. He says here that they shall have a name and a place among all the peoples of the earth, the restoration period, when Jehovah dwells within them in all his holiness and righteousness and truth. Such is Zephaniah’s picture of the day of judgment and such is his picture of the age to come. In prophetic vision he sees through an appalling cloud of darkness and destruction of that day, into the future when God shall save his people and his tabernacle shall be with them and he shall be their God and they shall be his people. While Zephaniah’s picture is not quite equal to that of Isaiah’s or Micah’s, and in many respects far beyond Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s and vastly inferior to the magnificent visions of John that he saw on Patmos, in essence they are all the same.
QUESTIONS
1. Who is the author of Zephaniah, what his lineal descent? and what the bearing of this fact on his fitness for his work?
2. What is the date of this book and what the reason for assigning this date to it?
3. With what great prophet was Zephaniah contemporary?
4. What is the occasion and purpose of his prophecy?
5. What can you say of the style and contents of the book?
6. Give an outline of the book.
7. What is Zephaniah’s vision of judgment, generally and particularly
8. Describe the sacrifice of Jehovah and explain the terms contained therein (Zep 1:7-13 ), and show the application to modern conditions.
9. Describe the “day of Jehovah” as given by Zephaniah.
10. What is the warning to the wicked and the admonition to the righteous in Zep 2:1-3 ?
11. Describe the doom of Philistia (Zep 2:4-7 ).
12. Describe the doom of Moab and Ammon (Zep 2:8-11 ).
13. Describe the doom of Ethiopia and Assyria (Zep 2:12-15 ).
14. Describe the incorrigible city (Zep 3:1-8 ).
15. What is the exhortation of Zep 3:8 and what determination therein expressed?
16. What are the particulars of the salvation of the remnant (Zep 3:9-13 )?
17. What say the radical critics of the paragraph, Zep 3:14-20 , and what the basis of their theory?
18. Describe the joys of the restoration (Zep 3:14-20 ).
19. How does this vision of Zephaniah compare with the visions of other prophets?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Zep 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah ] Which is (by interpretation) God’s secretary, or, hidden one, Psa 27:5 ; Psa 83:3 . Or, as Jerome and some others will have it, God’s watchman, Eze 33:7 . A fit name for a prophet.
The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c.
In the days of Josiah
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The word, &c. Compare Hos 1:1. Joe 1:1. Mic 1:1.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
came = became: i.e. came to, or was communicated. Compare Luk 3:2. See App-82.
Zephaniah = hidden of Jehovah, or he whom Jehovah hath hidden (Psa 27:5; Psa 31:19, Psa 31:20; Psa 83:3). For the connection See Zep 2:3.
Hizkiah = Hezekiah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Zephaniah
Shall we turn now in our Bibles to the book of Zephaniah. The opening verse tells us that,
This is the word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, who was the son of Gedaliah, who was the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah ( Zep 1:1 ).
Now, of the minor prophets we really have very little of their background. For some reason we have more of Zephaniah’s background than any of them, as he gives his lineage. He takes his lineage actually back to Hezekiah, who was, of course, one of the great kings of Judah. So Zephaniah was actually of the royal family. He prophesied during the reign of Josiah. Josiah had a fairly successful reign in Judah, especially from a spiritual standpoint. Under Josiah there was at least a surface reformation.
Now, the fact that he prophesied during the time of Josiah makes him a contemporary to Jeremiah. So during the time that the southern tribe of Judah was in the final decline, moving down towards the end of the southern kingdom, towards the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah and Zephaniah were exercising their office as a prophet to Judah at that time. And the Lord declares in His prophecy through Zephaniah that He
will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD ( Zep 1:2 ).
Now in Zephaniah’s prophecy there definitely is the double aspect of fulfillment. There was that fulfillment that was to take place under the destruction that came from Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, but that also looked out to the end. Zephaniah looks out to the Great Tribulation and does prophesy much about the Great Tribulation, the judgment of God, the indignation of God that is going to come upon this godless age in which we live. So the Lord is declaring, “I will utterly consume all things from off the land.”
I will consume the man and the beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, the fish of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD ( Zep 1:3 ).
This, no doubt, is a reference to the Great Tribulation period in which the cataclysmic judgments of God are gonna fall upon this planet Earth, and this planet Earth is going to see a turmoil such as it has never seen before or will ever see again. Jesus speaking of this time said, “And there shall be a time of Great Tribulation such as has never been before or will ever be again.” As the whole kingdom of the animals, fish, and man will be affected by the cataclysmic judgments of God. God is now speaking,
He is now gonna stretch out his hand against Jerusalem, and Judah; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests ( Zep 1:4 );
The Chemarims were actually the priests that exercised their offices at that time of apostasy. They were the priests in the high places, as referred to in the II Kings. So because of the idolatry there in Jerusalem and in Judah, God was going to turn them over into the hands of their enemies.
I have mentioned it before, and I think that it is quite significant, that in some of the latest archeological diggings, Professor Shiloh is seeking to uncover the old city of David. They call it the Hill of Ophel. It is right above the springs of Gihon. That hill that comes down to Gihon and goes up from there, and the pool of Siloam under which Hezekiah dug his tunnel, above the hill and up the slopes is the old city of Jerusalem that dates back to the time of this prophecy. The city of, or the hill of Ophel, and really was known as the City of David. As they have been excavating on up in recent excavations, these are the ones that created the riots last year. The riots were perpetrated by some of the rabbis, the orthodox rabbis, who felt that Professor Shiloh was not giving proper regard to the bones that he was uncovering. The orthodox rabbis have quite a thing on the dead. Whenever an archeologist finds a bone, they want to be there and examine it to see if it is a human bone, and if so, then the rabbis give it a blessing before they bury it.
Professor Shiloh is a very pragmatic kind of a person. I’ve had dinner with him, and I enjoyed his company very much. He is the kind of a guy that says, “Hey, I don’t want anybody trying to govern my dig. I feel that the archeology is scientific, and I don’t think that there should be a mixture of this religious aspect with the scientific projects of archeology.” So he deliberately ignored the desires of the rabbis, and this is why they had the big strike, and the big to-do over there. It was really a matter of principle as Professor Shiloh was trying to guard the scientific aspects of archeology, so that it doesn’t become a religious kind of a ceremony. So when he would uncover the bones, rather than calling for a rabbi, he’d say, “Oh, it’s a dog bone. Just bury it.” So the rabbis discovered what he was doing, and hence, the big to-do over there last summer in his excavations.
However, Professor Shiloh was telling me that as they uncovered the houses that existed, and of course, he said it always gives you sort of a sense of awe as you’re digging and you’re uncovering the rubble and the ruins of the houses, and you find the interiors just as they were when they were destroyed by the Babylonians. He said that the artifacts that they find within the houses that were destroyed by this Babylonian army, they just came in and just broke the houses down. You see, when they came back from the Babylonian captivity, the place was all overgrown. The houses were all leveled, and the place was overgrown. So rather than at that time uncovering them and rebuilding the houses, they just put more dirt over them and built on top of them. But he said as they were digging in the ruins of these houses, finding them just as the Babylonians had destroyed them, he said they were amazed at the number of little gods that they discovered, the little idols that were in every home. He speaks of the multitudes of idols, and he showed me pictures just table after table, full of these little idols that were in these homes of the people in Judah prior to the destruction by the Babylonian army. Surely that is confirmation of what we read in Jeremiah, and what we read in Isaiah, as these prophets were warning of the judgment of God that was to come because of the idolatry that existed.
Now here again, as Zephaniah is telling of the destruction and the judgment of God that is going to come, there is the mention of the worship of Baal. So many little idols to Baal, which means lord, were discovered. The priests, the Chemarims, the priests of the high places.
And them that worship the hosts of heaven upon the housetops ( Zep 1:5 );
Which was the practice of astrology, which is an ancient cult going back to the Babylonian period where people imagined that the stars had certain influences over their lives. So the time that you were born and all, feeling that the stars determined your destiny. Isn’t it amazing that this modern, scientifically enlightened age there are those who still look at their horoscopes to determine whether or not they should go to work today. “They worship the hosts of heaven upon the housetops,”
and them that swear by the LORD, and swear by Malcham ( Zep 1:5 );
Which, of course, is the idol of the Ammonites, which had its equivalent of Molech.
And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him ( Zep 1:6 ).
Here they were worshiping all of their idols, but they had forsaken Jehovah, and had not inquired of Jehovah.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the LORD is at hand ( Zep 1:7 ):
The day of the Lord is, of course, again, a reference to the great day of God’s judgment that is coming.
for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests ( Zep 1:7 ).
You remember in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, as it speaks of this great day of the Lord’s wrath that is coming, that He invites the birds to come and feast on the carcasses of kings and so forth. The great day of the Lord’s wrath. So He has prepared a sacrifice, a feast. He has bid His guests, which are the birds, the vultures to come and to eat the carcasses of men.
And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all of those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. It shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be a noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh ( Zep 1:8-11 ),
That is actually the little area where the shopping, the bazaar. If you go to Jerusalem today the sukes, the commercial place within the city, these long narrow little streets where all of these little shops are on all sides, that’s the Hebrew Maktesh. It’s the place where they did all of their selling. “Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh,”
for all of the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil ( Zep 1:11-12 ).
In other words, God is withdrawn; it doesn’t matter to God. “We can live as we please. What difference does it make to God? He won’t do good; He won’t do evil.” People who live as though God did not exist.
Now, I think that we look at some people and we are appalled at the brazen declarations that they make of atheism. They are so bold in their speaking out against the things of God. Many times we are shocked at their blasphemies. But you know, I think that even worse than some of these blasphemous persons are people who say they believe in God, and yet, they live as though God did not exist. Who never take God into account in any of the decisions of their lives. Now to me this is a greater blasphemy than a man who utters oaths with his mouth. They say, “Oh, I believe in God. Yes, I believe in God,” but he never takes God into account in any of the decision-making processes, never seeks the Lord. He has the attitude, “Well, the Lord’s not gonna do good or do evil.” It’s that careless attitude concerning God and the things of God. The Lord said He’s gonna punish those that have settled on their lees.
Therefore, their goods shall become a booty, their houses a desolation ( Zep 1:13 ):
Boy, as you go, and you go through the archeological digs that Professor Shiloh has made, you see what desolation has become of their houses.
they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and it hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, it is a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet [the battle trumpet that calls the troops to assemble] and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land ( Zep 1:13-18 ).
Of course, the prophecy here does definitely spread out in the double fulfillment going to the great day of God’s judgment that is coming yet upon the earth. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Zep 1:1
JUDGEMENT OF GOD
SALUTATION . . . Zep 1:1
As in other prophetic writings, Zephaniahs opening verse leaves no room for doubt as to the origin of his message. He does not describe his call, as does Isaiah, nor claim to have seen a vision, as, for example, Nahum. But the claim to inspiration is never in doubt.
It is not in the scope of this work to prove the validity of this claim. The reader is referred to the Moody Press (1963) publication, Can I Trust The Bible, edited by Howard F. Vos for an excellent series of treatises on the subject as it pertains to the entire Bible.
We shall simply proceed on the presupposition that Zephaniah was among those described by Peter as men (who) spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. 2Pe 1:21)
The prophets opening words the word of Jehovah are calculated to establish the authority of what he is about to say. He claims royal lineage and has easy access to the courts of Judah, but these ate not the authority to which he appeals. He will write down the word of Jehovah God.
Zephaniah identifies himself as son of Cushi . . . of Gedaliah . . . of Amariah . . . of Hezekiah. We know virtually nothing of either Cushi or Gedaliah or Amariah. The important name here is Hezekiah, the last God-fearing king of Judah prior to Josiah with whom Zephaniah is contemporary.
Zerr: Word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah denotes that the prophet wrote by inspiration of God. Days of Josiah definitely gives us the date of the book which was near the end of the kingdom of Judah.
Questions
Judgement of God
1. Discuss Zephaniahs claim to inspiration.
2. Trace the idea of judgement by fire.
3. What are the stumbling blocks which cause man to sin? (Zep 1:3)
4. Who are the hosts of heaven on the housetops?
5. Discuss the religious syncretism of Zephaniahs day as seen in Judahs compromise with strange gods as it typlifies modern religious syncretism.
6. Who will likely be most surprised by Gods judgement? (Zep 1:6)
7. Discuss Zephaniahs pronouncement of judgement against Judah in light of the principle set down in 1Pe 4:17.
8. Who are those clothed in foreign apparel? (Zep 1:8)
9. Who are those that leap over the threshold? (Zep 1:9)
10. When the invading Babylonians came against Jerusalem they came from the ___________________.
11. Discuss I will search with lamps. (Zep 1:12)
12. Were the apostles and the prophets mistaken as to the soon coming of the final Day of the Lord? Explain,
13. How do you reconcile the wrath of God and the love of God?
14. Gods threatenings are always a call to ___________________.
15. Who are the meek?
16. Meekness is _______________ ___________________.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The first movement of the prophecy is the prophet’s declaration of the coming judgment of Jehovah. This he announced in general terms, then described more particularly its procedure and character.
This description opened with a comprehensive announcement, “I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.” Zephaniah then showed that to be a description of the creation in so far as it had become evil: man and the sphere of his dominion, the stumbling-blocks, with the wicked and the race, were to be consumed. The local application was that judgment would descend on Judah and Jerusalem, falling on those who had practiced idolatry, those who had indulged in mixed worship, those who had backslidden from following the Lord, and those who had never sought or inquired after Him.
Proceeding to describe more particularly the judgment, the prophet announced the presence of Jehovah for the purpose of judgment. The stroke of that judgment would fall first on the princes, then on the extortioners, also on the merchantmen, and, finally, on those who were living on their wealth in idleness and indifference.
The prophet finally gave a graphic description of the day in which men would walk as blind, none being able to deliver them because Jehovah would make “an end . . . a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land.”
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
The Great Day of the Lord
Zep 1:1-18
Zephaniah means hidden of the Lord. He lived in Josiahs reign, and cooperated with that king in his efforts to put down idolatry. His prophecy deals with the sins that were rife in Judah and the fearful retribution that would be inflicted through the Chaldeans.
Approaching destruction, Zep 1:2-6. The Chemarim, r.v., were idolatrous priests dressed in black garments. Malcam is Milcom or Moloch. Notice the successive classes of those who were to suffer in the overthrow. They constitute a series of concentric circles, narrowing down at last to those who had turned back, and to those who had never sought the Lord.
The invaders, Zep 1:7-18. The guests whom God invited to the banquet were Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers! They marched in through the Fish Gate; and, as they advanced, cry after cry arose from the affrighted populace, driven from quarter to quarter. Maktesh, Zep 1:11, was probably the Vale of Siloam, where the merchant princes dwelt or pursued their business. None would be able to elude the coming vengeance. Those that affected foreign attire, or leaped across the threshold in superstition, or practiced deceit, would have to pay dearly for their sins. Fulfilled in the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and afterward by Titus, these words will always stand for the inevitable national sufferings which follow national crimes.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Notes on the Prophecy of Zephaniah
Chapter 1
The Day Of The Lord
Of the prophet Zephaniah practically nothing is known beyond what he himself tells us in the first verse. His pedigree is traced back through four generations, and the date of his ministry is given as in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. Those were days of blessing and revival for a remnant; but the mass of the people, though outwardly reformed, were in the sad state described in this book and in the early chapters of Jeremiah. The object of the Spirit in Zephaniah was, therefore, to warn the formalists of coming judgment, and to comfort the hearts of the godly residue who had a little strength, and had not denied His name. In fact, the prophecy of Zephaniah has much in common with the New Testament letter to the Philadelphian assembly, contemplating a condition of things answering in large measure to what we see at the present time-a day when many vaunt themselves in Laodicean pride while walking in utter indifference to the written Word of God and despising a feeble remnant who cling to that Word and seek to honor Him who gave it. Such may be like Zephaniah himself, whose very name means, Hidden of Jehovah; but though unknown to men, they are well known to Him who speaks of an hour coming when the haughty opposers of the truth shall come and worship before thy feet, and know that I have loved thee (Rev 3:7-13).
The very fact that a remnant are at any time distinguished from the mass implies that the latter are ripe for judgment; for when all goes as it should, there is no occasion for the faithful to be thus distinguished. Therefore this prophecy has much to say about the coming of the Lord when everything will be dealt with in the light of His revealed will. Zephaniah speaks of judgment about to fall, first on Judah and Jerusalem, yea, the whole land (though the ten tribes had been carried into Assyria nearly a century ere his time); then, on all the surrounding nations. For, if God begins with His people, He will not stop there, but all must know the power of His anger when He makes inquisition in regard to their ways.
The three chapters may be considered as three divisions. Chapter 1 presents the general truth as to the day of the Lord which is coming upon Judah. Chapter 2 gives the judgment of the nations. Chapter 3 is the indictment of Jerusalem, with the eustomary promise of restoration, to be made good after the purging of the period of tribulation.
Zephaniah was contemporary with Jeremiah for at least a part of the latters ministry, but he probably passed off the scene before the predicted destruction of Jerusalem was fulfilled.
Coming to a somewhat careful notice of this first chapter, we find in verses 2 to 6 the solemn announcement of the stretching out of Jehovahs hand in judgment against the people of His choice. He was about to consume all things from off the land. Man and beast, fowls and fishes, all alike must feel the stroke. It speaks of utter desolation-the result of the fearful ravages of bloody warfare. Judah and Jerusalem were to be given up to the woes of which they had been warned for so long. They had turned away from Him, who would have been their Saviour, to follow Baal, the demon of the heathen. God would not cease His strange work until He had cut off the last vestige of Baal-worship from the land. The idolatrous priests who had been the instruments used to deceive the people were to be cut off too till the very name of the Chemarim would cease. The worshipers of the heavenly bodies, together with those who professed to follow the Lord, but whose profession was unreal, as also those who swore by Malcham,26 the great king -all must be included in the coming doom.
The host appointed to death is divided into two classes in the sixth verse: Them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for Him. There were some who had at first heeded Josiahs call to repentance, and who had sought for a time to obey the voice of the Lord; but, putting their hand to the plow, they looked back and relapsed into their old idolatrous ways. There were others who had never known, nor cared to know, the mind of God. All must perish in the common destruction that was coming.
Beginning with verse 7, we have a more detailed account of the manner in which the awful threatenings were to be carried out. It will be noticed that while the prophet himself had before his mind, beyond any doubt, the Babylonian conquest, the Holy Spirit who empowered him to speak and write had something far more serious before Him. The day of the Lord was at hand, a day which will only be known in its fulness when mans day has come to a close. In that day the Lord will prepare a great sacrificial feast. Already He hath bid His guests. The language reminds us of the supper of the great God, or, as it should be rendered, the great supper of God, in Rev 19:17, 18. In that day He will visit the iniquities of the princes and the kings household upon them, as also all of foreign birth who are gathered together in the land of Palestine. Violence and deceit shall meet their just desert, and evil be everywhere abased (vers. 7-9).
From gate to gate the cry of anguish will be heard. The merchants and great ones who have lived in pleasure on the earth shall in no wise escape the day of His wrath. Jam 5:1 seems to be intimately connected with verse 11 of this chapter. Both have to do with the collapse of the great commercial system which in our own day has assumed such gigantic proportions.
It is a matter of solemn moment, the place / given in Scripture to the mad rush for silver and gold in the last days. The world today presents an amazing spectacle if viewed from this standpoint. Commerce is the Baal of the hour. In the accumulation. of great wealth, conscience and Christianity are pressed to the wall. Gold is king and god. For gold men will sacrifice every principle, human and divine. Covetousness is the ruling passion of the age. All else must go down before it. And Scripture warrants us to expect this, and emphasizes the fact that it is a sign of the near approach of the end. Happy are those saints who are preserved from this unholy spirit of the times, and who, having food and raiment, seek to be therewith content!
With a lighted lamp the Lord will search Jerusalem in that day; not, as now, to find the lost piece that typifies the poor sinner lying in dust (Luk 15:8-10), but to ferret out every man who has been indifferent to His truth and has sought to make God a nonentity in His own creation, saying, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil (ver. 12). This is likewise characteristic of the present times. Men no longer believe in a particular providence. Even the so-called clergy often ridicule he idea of divine intervention in the affairs of men. Law, hard and inexorable, is supposed to control all things; so that human responsibility and a prayer-hearing God are alike practically denied. But the hour of awakening is nearing, when, too late, men will be made to know the reality of Gods government and the truth of His Word. Their goods shall become a prey and their abodes a desolation when they are snatched away by the fierce anger of the Lord, whose power and hatred against sin they have disdainfully ignored (ver. 13).
In fervid rhythm the prophet winds up the first section of his book with a stirring description of the day so long expected-the day of the Lord. It is near, and hasteth greatly; the day wherein the mighty man shall cry bitterly when he sinks beneath the weight of divine wrath. It shall be a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm! No refuge will then avail, no high tower protect from the avenging hand of Him whom men have insulted to His face for so long. Like the blind who stumble in the daytime, they shall grope in their distress, only to fall into the pit prepared, because they have sinned against the Lord. The riches for which they have labored will be useless to save them. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath. He will not cease until He has made a speedy riddance of all who have defiled His land. The fire must burn till all the chaff be consumed (vers. 14-18).
To this, men are fast hastening on. For this, the Jews are even now returning in unbelief to their ancient home. For this, men are sacrificing every right and noble instinct, building, as has been well said, for the fire!
What sobriety and other-worldliness27 becomes the Christian in view of the end toward which everything is now hastening so rapidly! The day of the Lord is near. The Morning Star will soon shine forth. Be it ours then to live and act as men who wait for their Lord!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Zep 1:12
The metaphor of the text appears to be drawn from that of a man who, having cause for suspicion, searches over every part of his house, and goes down to the very foundation; and because some places are very dark there, he takes with him candles-and, making the light pass carefully over every spot, he scrutinizes for that which he endeavours to discover.
I. It seems evident that the Holy Spirit is mainly intended by the candle of the Lord; not only because God speaks of the Spirit under this image (Job 29:2-4), but more particularly because the Church is compared to the candlestick. Christ, who is present in the Church by the Holy Ghost, is that Light which the candlestick, however precious, is worthless if it do not hold. The Holy Ghost is the grand Revealer by which God lays open all the secret places of a man’s heart, and from whom all other means whatever gain their efficacy.
II. Subject, however, to this great light, and altogether dependent upon it, there comes next the ministry of God’s Word in preaching. That the blessed effect of God’s Word to probe the conscience and uncover a man belongs, in an eminent degree, to the public minister of the Word, is certain from 1. Cor. xiv., where St. Paul says: “But if all prophesy [i.e. ‘preach’], and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all”-not all men, but by every word that is spoken; “he is judged of all,” every word condemns him, and observe the consequence-“and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.”
III. “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” This undoubtedly means a man’s conscience when the Lord has enlightened that conscience by His Spirit, and thereby fitted it to act that great part of laying bare the hidden, inner life.
IV. Observe, when God rises up to search where the light falls the angriest. It is not on the profane; it is not on the vicious; it is not on the world,-they have their condemnation; but the first inquiry of our heart-searching God is this: “Who are they that have quenched their grace?”
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 47.
I. If we examine a little closely we shall be forced to admit, that there is a direct tendency in prosperity to the fostering and strengthening the corruptions of our nature. The more, for example, a man obtains of wealth or of power, the more, ordinarily, will he desire; so that attachment to earthly things grows with their acquirement; and if it is not impossible, it is very rare and difficult to have the affections fixed on things above whilst the hands are uninterruptedly busied with sweeping together perishable riches. The bent of our dispositions being towards the earth, if nothing ever happen to turn them from earth, there is little ground for expecting that they will centre themselves on heaven.
II. Consider the beneficial results of change and calamity. Change admonishes us of the transitory nature of terrestrial good. Exactly in proportion as calamity is deferred, confidence is strengthened; and if evil be slow in coming, men easily persuade themselves that it will never come at all. If, for many years, there have been no eruption of the volcano from whose outbreak the peasantry had fled with every demonstration of terror, the cottages will again be built around the treacherous mountain, and the smiling gardens clustered on its sides; but if the cottages were swept away year after year by fresh descents of the fiery flood, we may be sure that the peasantry however attached to the place, would finally abandon it altogether, and seek a home in some more secure, though perhaps less lovely, scene. And certainly every change, and yet more a succession of changes, speaks to an individual in the same words as would thus tell on a disturbed, disquieted peasantry: “Arise ye, and depart hence, for this is hot your rest.”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,138.
References: Zep 1:12.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 171; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 6. Zep 1:17.-Ibid., 2nd series, p. 12. Zep 2:3.-J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 371; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 357. Zep 3:2.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1,580; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 360; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 172. Zep 3:8-10.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 213. Zep 3:9.-J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 375: J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 302. Zep 3:11, Zep 3:12.-Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. x., p. 248. Zep 3:12.-J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 365; S. Cox, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., pp. 393, 457, 529, 592, 655, 719. Zep 3:13.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 173. Zep 3:17.-Ibid., p. 173; J. S. Candlish, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 45.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Analysis and Annotations
CHAPTER 1
The Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment
1. The judgment of all the world (Zep 1:1-3)
2. The judgment will destroy the evildoers in Judah (Zep 1:4-13)
3. The day of the Lord (Zep 1:14-18)
Zep 1:1-3. The first verse is the superscription, and tells us, as pointed out in the introduction, of the connection of Zephaniah and the date of his prophecy.
Then comes the announcement of the judgment. It is to consume all things from off the face of the land, man and beast, the fowls of heaven, the fishes of the sea, and end the stumbling blocks of the wicked, that is, their idols and idol worship. The land is not to be understood as being Israels land exclusively; it means the earth. That the judgment vision of Zephaniah has a wider scope than the land and the people is fully confirmed by other passages. The great day comes upon men everywhere (Zep 1:17); it is universal (Zep 2:4-15); all the isles of the nations are mentioned (Zep 2:11).
Zep 1:4-13. It will fall especially upon the house of Judah and Jerusalem. In the verses which follow we have a description of the moral conditions of the Jews when Josiah started his reformation, which prophetically gives us a picture of the conditions among the Jews when this age closes, and a portion of them is back in the land of their fathers, as they are attempting to get it back now through political Zionism.
The hand of the Lord will be stretched out upon Judah and Jerusalem. The remnant of Baal will be cut off and the Chemarim, with the priests. Idolatry, whatever remains of it, should then be completely abolished. Baal was the idol of god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites; the word means lord or possessor. With the worship of this god licentious practices were connected. Chemarim is the name of the idolatrous priests which conducted the high places, appointed for this service by the kings of Judah 2Ki 23:5. In Zep 1:5 and Zep 1:6 other forms of idolatry are mentioned. They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars, and studied their movements as if they could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practiced among civilized nations today, is an old cult 2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 21:5; Jer 8:22; Jer 19:13. Others used the Holy Name of Jehovah, and at the same time they used the name of Malcham. All was a turning back from Jehovah and dishonoring His Name.
As to the future curse of idolatry among the Jews, the passage in Mat 12:43; Mat 12:45, the words of our Lord, gives us the full information. The unclean spirit there is the spirit of idolatry, from which the Jews in their dispersion are free; the unclean spirit has left the house, but it is to return, and the last state is worse than the first: Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. They will worship the man of sin, the masterpiece of Satan, who in the end of the age will take his place in the temple of God 2Th 2:1-17.
The day of the Lord is at hand; a statement which verifies our interpretation that this prophecy refers to the future day. The Lord has prepared His sacrifice and bidden his guests. It is the supper of the great God, to which He invites His guests. Read in connection with this Rev 19:17-18. What that day will bring is described in Zep 1:8-13. All the evil doers will be dealt with by the Lord.
Zep 1:14-18. The great day of the Lord is now more fully described. It is the day when the announced judgment will take place. Higher criticism sees nothing but some invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the culmination of the past ages, when Jehovah is revealed, so vividly described in Joe 2:11. On that day the voice of the Lord will be heard Psa 29:1-11; Isa 66:6. When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness, for he is unable to save himself from the judgment tempest. In two verses the prophet describes vividly the greatness of that day.
A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of ruin and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and cloudy darkness; A day of the trumpet and the war cry Against the fortified cities, And against the lofty battlements.
Thomas of Celano used in 1250 the Vulgate translation of the first sentence Dies irae, dies illa in writing his famous judgment hymn. It is well to compare Scripture with Scripture about that day. (For instance Zep 1:15 with Joe 3:1-21; Amo 5:18; Amo 5:20; Amo 8:9; Isa 13:10, and many other passages.) When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be upon all. They will walk like blind men, that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day, neither silver nor gold will avail anything.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
word: Eze 1:3, Hos 1:1, 2Ti 3:16, 2Pe 1:19
in the days: 2Ki 22:1 – 2Ki 23:37, 2Ch 34:1 – 2Ch 35:27, Jer 1:2, Jer 25:3
Reciprocal: Jer 9:26 – Egypt Jer 36:14 – Cushi Luk 3:2 – the word
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zep 1:1. Word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah denotes that the prophet wrote by inspiration of God. Days of Josiah definitely gives us the date of the book which was near the end of the kingdom of Judah.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zep 1:1. The word that came to Zephaniah The divine revelation that was made to him. The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c. If these were not prophets, as the Jewish doctors make them, yet it is probable they were persons of some note in Judah. The son of Hizkiah Although both the letters and points of this name in the Hebrew are the same with those of King Hezekiah, and some therefore have thought that the prophet was his great-grandson; yet that could not be the case, because there was not a sufficient distance of time between King Hezekiah and Josiah, in whose time he flourished, for four descents: nor do we read of Hezekiahs having any son but Manasseh. In the days of Josiah The Jews were wont to allege, that their kings obliged them to practise idolatry, and rendered them in other respects corrupt in their manners; but God, by raising up the pious Josiah to be their king, deprived them of that excuse. For so far was he from encouraging them in any branch of impiety or vice, that he used his utmost efforts to effect a thorough reformation among them, although, alas! to little purpose, for they continued to be exceeding corrupt, both in their principles and practices; or, if any change took place among them for the better, it seems to have been but very partial, and of very short duration.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Zep 1:1. The Word of the Lord came to Zephaniah. The glorious person of Christ, the Word and Wisdom of God; so indeed is the oft-repeated gloss of the Chaldaic in all the book of Chronicles, when a prophet was sent to warn and reprove the land of Israel. The name given to him by his parents, the secret of the Lord, might seem to have been an augur of his divine call.
Zep 1:2-3. I will utterly consume manbeasts birdsand fishes. It was known to the ancients that birds perish by pestilential contagion. The birds themselves, affected by pernicious air, fall and die beneath the cloud.
Ipsis est ar avibus non quus, et ill Prcipites alt vitam sub nube relinquunt. Georg. 3:546.
The blood in a city after carnage, washed into the river by tremendous rain, will suffocate the fish. Yet the words of the prophet are figurative, and intimate that God would cut off even the fisher-men by the sword.
Zep 1:4. I will cut offthe Chemarims with the priests. This is a name of contempt, not that they wore black clothes, but that like the name of the Zamzummim, it is given them because of their shouts at the time of their idolatrous sacrifice. The word is translated priests in 2Ki 23:5. God would destroy these vile men, with all the priests of Aarons race who had joined in their idolatry. These were the stumblingblocks which occasioned the nations fall.
Zep 1:5. Them that worship the host of heaven upon the house-tops. Great families had private altars on the flat roofs of their houses, where they made oblations to Venus, Jupiter, and the stars; where also they lifted up their hands and swore by Malcolm, the idol of the Ammonites. See on Jdg 10:6. This worship is sabianism, which spread through the oriental world. Job 1:15.
Zep 1:7. The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. The flesh of the people, and hath invited his guests, the Chaldean army to the feast. Jeremiah ascribes this slaughter to the sins of the false prophets, and the apostate priests. Lam 4:13.
Zep 1:8. I will punish all such as are clothed with strange apparel. Lycurgus compelled the Spartans to dress according to their rank. The court, following monthly fashions, under pretense of giving a stimulus to trade, do great injury to the middle classes by exciting a spirit of emulation, and so involving them in superfluous expenses to provide new dresses for their wives and daughters. The young men also must now wear womens stays, forsooth, and so prevent their growth. A dandy race, reproaching the Creator for deficiency in the configuration of the body.
Zep 1:10. A cry from the fishgate. Neh 3:3. It led to Joppa, now St. John DAcre, whence fish were brought from the sea. This was properly the port of Jerusalem. The next verses describe the cessation of all trade, when the invading army approached. Such are the horrors and visitations of war.
Zep 1:11. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh. This is the lower city where trades, manufactures, and merchandise were carried on. But critics are not agreed as to the precise import of the word. It might be some outworks adjacent to the city, as the tanneries of Southwark adjacent to London.
Zep 1:13. They shall plant. A better reading would be, Though ye have planted vineyards, ye shall not eat of the fruit thereof.
Zep 1:17. Their flesh shall be as dung; filling all the streets of Jerusalem, and all the courts of the temple. So great was the slaughter on the rebel city, that their blood flowed like water, as described in the seventy ninth psalm. The people of all ages were trodden under foot, as grapes in the wine press. Lam 1:15.
REFLECTIONS.
Our prophet having received a divine commission, and probably in early years, opens his ministry like a thunder storm. He exhibited an angry God, marching in fury with fire and sword, cutting off all the living beings of the land, and covering all verdure with the desolations of winter. He saw the angry clouds, as in the next chapter, roll beyond the confines of his country, to pour their latent fury on the nations that laughed at Judahs fall. And what else but such a ministry could rouse a guilty land, from carnal slumber, and sensual repose.
On the Chemarim, on the priests, on those that turn their backs of the Lord, the keenest blasts of the tempest shall blow; for the sins of the sanctuary are doubly provoking in his sight. On the Sabian worshippers upon the house-tops, who could eat their peace-offerings when the moon had begun to repair her new horns, the blast shall blow down their altars. When the Lord begins he will also make an end. All their wealth and pride shall be a booty for the men who do the Lords strange work.
The prophet, to give his warnings full effect, adds, that the day of the Lord was near. As a watchman, he trifled not with the souls committed to his care. While blowing the trumpet, he left not the harshest truths untold. It was a day of wrath, a day of distress and desolation; a day in which neither gold nor silver should procure a reprieve. Such are the attributes of Him with whom we have to do. He discovers the fire of jealousy on men who had set up another god.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Zep 1:1. Title.The most extended of prophetic genealogies, probably because Zephaniah was of royal descent (cf. Intro.).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
I. HEADING 1:1
What follows is the word that Yahweh gave to Zephaniah during the reign of King Josiah of Judah (640-609 B.C.). This "word" includes all that the Lord told the prophet that He also led him to record for posterity (cf. Hos 1:1; Joe 1:1; Mic 1:1). This was a divine revelation that God gave through one of His servants the prophets.
Zephaniah recorded his genealogy, the longest genealogy of a writing prophet in any prophetical book. It goes back four generations to Zephaniah’s great-great-grandfather, or possibly more distant relative, Hezekiah. As noted in the "Writer" section of the Introduction above, it is impossible to prove or to disprove that this Hezekiah was the king of Judah with that name. Chronologically he could have been since people married quite young during Israel’s monarchy. I think this Hezekiah probably was the king since the name was not common and since it would make sense to trace the prophet’s lineage back so far if Hezekiah was an important person (cf. Zec 1:1). [Note: See ibid., p. 898; Smith, pp. 182-83; G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, Commonly Called the Minor, p. 46; and Baker, p. 91.] Normally the writing prophets who recorded their ancestors named only their fathers (cf. Jon 1:1; Joe 1:1). We have no complete genealogy of King Hezekiah’s descendants in the Old Testament.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE PROPHET AND THE REFORMERS
Zep 1:1-18 – Zep 2:3
TOWARDS the year 625, when King Josiah had passed out of his minority, and was making his first efforts at religious reform, prophecy, long slumbering, woke again in Israel. Like the king himself, its first heralds were men in their early youth. In 627 Jeremiah calls himself but a boy, and Zephaniah can hardly have been out of his teens. For the sudden outbreak of these young lives there must have been a large reservoir of patience and hope gathered in the generation behind them. So Scripture itself testifies. To Jeremiah it was said: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I consecrated thee.” {Jer 1:5} In an age when names were bestowed only because of their significance, both prophets bore that of Jehovah in their own. So did Jeremiahs father, who was of the priests of Anathoth. Zephaniahs “forbears” are given for four generations, and with one exception they also are called after Jehovah: “The Word of Jehovah which came to Sephanyah, son of Kushi, son of Gedhalyah, son of Amaryah, son of Hizkiyah, in the days of Joshiyahu, Amons son, king of Judah.” Zephaniahs great-great-grandfather Hezekiah was in all probability the king. His fathers name Kushi, or Ethiop, is curious. If we are right, that Zephaniah was a young man towards 625, then Kushi must have been born towards 663, about the time of the conflicts between Assyria and Egypt, and it is possible that, as Manasseh and the predominant party in Judah so closely hung upon and imitated Assyria, the adherents of Jehovah put their hope in Egypt, whereof, it may be, this name Kushi is a token. The name Zephaniah itself, meaning “Jehovah hath hidden,” suggests the prophets birth in the “killing-time” of Manasseh. There was at least one other contemporary of the same name-a priest executed by Nebuchadrezzar. Of the adherents of Jehovah, then, and probably of royal descent, Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem. We descry him against her, almost a clearly as we descry Isaiah. In the glare and smoke of the conflagration which his vision sweeps across the world, only her features stand out definite and particular: the flat roofs with men and women bowing in the twilight to the host of heaven, the crowds of priests, the nobles and their foreign fashions: the Fishgate, the New or Second Town, where the rich lived, the heights to which building had at last spread, and between them the hollow mortar, with its markets, Phoenician merchants, and money-dealers. In the first few verses of Zephaniah we see almost as much of Jerusalem as in the whole book either of Isaiah or Jeremiah.
For so young a man the vision of Zephaniah may seem strangely dark and final. Yet not otherwise was Isaiahs inaugural vision, and as a rule it is the young and not the old whose indignation is ardent and unsparing. Zephaniah carries this temper to the extreme. There is no great hope in his book, hardly any tenderness, and never a glimpse of beauty. A townsman, Zephaniah has no eye for nature; not only is no fair prospect described by him, he has not even a single metaphor drawn from natures loveliness or peace. He is pitilessly true to his great keynotes: “I will sweep, sweep from the face of the ground; He will burn,” burn up everything. No hotter book lies in all the Old Testament. Neither dew nor grass nor tree nor any blossom lives in it, but it is everywhere fire, smoke, and darkness, drifting chaff, ruins, nettles, salt-pits, and owls and ravens looking from the windows of desolate palaces. Nor does Zephaniah foretell the restoration of nature in the end of the days. There is no prospect of a redeemed and fruitful land, but only of a group of battered and hardly saved characters: a few meek and righteous are hidden from the fire and creep forth when it is over. Israel is left “a poor and humble folk.” No prophet is more true to the doctrine of the remnant, or more resolutely refuses to modify it. Perhaps he died young.
The full truth, however, is that Zephaniah, though he found his material in the events of his own day, tears himself loose from history altogether. To the earlier prophets the Day of the Lord, the crisis of the world, is a definite point in history: full of terrible, Divine events, yet “natural” ones – battle, siege, famine, massacre, and captivity. After it history is still to flow on, common days come back and Israel pursue their way as a nation. But to Zephaniah the Day of the Lord begins to assume what we call the “supernatural.” The grim colors are still woven of war and siege, but mixed with vague and solemn terrors from another sphere, by which history appears to be swallowed up, and it is only with an effort that the prophet thinks of a rally of Israel beyond. In short, with Zephaniah the Day of the Lord tends to become the Last Day. His book is the first tinging of prophecy with apocalypse: that is the moment which it supplies in the history of Israels religion. And, therefore, it was with a true instinct that the great Christian singer of the Last Day took from Zephaniah his keynote. The “Dies Irae, Dies Illa” of Thomas of Celano is but the Vulgate translation of Zephaniahs “A day of wrath is that day.”
Nevertheless, though the first of apocalyptic writers, Zephaniah does not allow himself the license of apocalypse. As he refuses to imagine great glory for the righteous, so he does not dwell on the terrors of the wicked. He is sober and restrained, a matter-of-fact man, yet with power of imagination, who, amidst the vague horrors he summons, delights in giving a sharp realistic impression. The Day of the Lord, he says, what is it? “A strong man-there!-crying bitterly.”
It is to the fierce ardor, and to the elemental interests of the book, that we owe the absence of two features of prophecy which are so constant in the prophets of the eighth century. Firstly, Zephaniah betrays no interest in the practical reforms which (if we are right about the date) the young king, his contemporary, had already started. There was a party of reform, the party had a program, the program was drawn from the main principles of prophecy and was designed to put these into practice. And Zephaniah was a prophet and ignored them. This forms the dramatic interest of his book. Here was a man of the same faith which kings, priests, and statesmen were trying to realize in public life, in the assured hope-as is plain from the temper of Deuteronomy-that the nation as a whole would be reformed and become a very great nation, righteous and victorious. All this he ignored, and gave his own vision of the future: Israel is a brand plucked from the burning; a very few meek and righteous are saved from the conflagration of a whole world. Why? Because for Zephaniah the elements were loose, and when the elements were loose what was the use of talking about reforms? The Scythians were sweeping down upon Palestine, with enough of Gods wrath in them to destroy a people still so full of idolatry as Israel was; and if not the Scythians, then some other power in that dark, rumbling North which had ever been so full of doom. Let Josiah try to reform Israel, but it was neither Josiahs nor Israels day that was falling. It was the Day of the Lord, and when He came it was neither to reform nor to build up Israel, but to make visitation and to punish in His wrath for the unbelief and wickedness of which the nation was still full.
An analogy to this dramatic opposition between prophet and reformer may be found in our own century. At its crisis, in 1848, there were many righteous men rich in hope and energy. The political institutions of Europe were being rebuilt. In our own land there were great measures for the relief of laboring children and women, the organization of labor, and the just distribution of wealth. But Carlyle that year held apart from them all, and, though a personal friend of many of the reformers, counted their work hopeless: society was too corrupt, the rudest forces were loose, “Niagara” was near. Carlyle was proved wrong and the reformers right, but in the analogous situation of Israel the reformers were wrong and the prophet right. Josiahs hope and daring were overthrown at Megiddo, and, though the Scythians passed away, Zephaniahs conviction of the sin and doom of Israel was fulfilled, not forty years later, in the fall of Jerusalem and the great Exile. Again, to the same elemental interests, as we may call them, is due the absence from Zephaniahs pages of all the social and individual studies which form the charm of other prophets. With one exception, there is no analysis of character, no portrait, no satire. But the exception is worth dwelling upon: it describes the temper equally abhorred by both prophet and reformer-that of the indifferent and stagnant man. Here we have a subtle and memorable picture of character, which is not without its warnings for our own time.
Zephaniah heard God say: “And it shall be at that time that I will search out Jerusalem with lights, and I will make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who say in their hearts, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil.” The metaphor is clear. New wine was left upon its lees only long enough to fix its color and body. If not then drawn off it grew thick and syrupy-sweeter indeed than the strained wine, and to the taste of some more pleasant, but feeble and ready to decay. “To settle upon ones lees” became a proverb for sloth, indifference, and the muddy mind. “Moab hath been at ease from his youth and hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; therefore his taste stands in him and his scent is not changed.” {Jer 48:11} The characters stigmatized by Zephaniah are also obvious. They were a precipitate from the ferment of fifteen years back. Through the cruel days of Manasseh and Amon hope had been stirred and strained, emptied from vessel to vessel, and so had sprung, sparkling and keen, into the new days of Josiah. But no miracle came, only ten years of waiting for the kings majority and five more of small, tentative reforms. Nothing Divine happened. They were but the ambiguous successes of a small party who had secured the king for their principles. The court was still full of foreign fashions, and idolatry was rank upon the housetops. Of course disappointment ensued-disappointment and listlessness. The new security of life became a temptation; persecution ceased, and religious men lived again at ease. So numbers of eager and sparkling souls, who had been in the front of the movement, fell away into a selfish and idle obscurity.
The prophet hears God say, “I must search Jerusalem with lights” in order to find them. They had “fallen from the van and the freemen”; they had “sunk to the rear and the slaves,” where they wallowed in the excuse that “Jehovah” Himself “would do nothing-neither good,” therefore it is useless to attempt reform like Josiah and his party, “nor evil,” therefore Zephaniahs prophecy of destruction is also vain. Exactly the same temper was encountered by Mazzini in the second stage of his career. Many of those who with him had eagerly dreamt of a free Italy fell away when the first revolt failed-fell away not merely into weariness and fear, but, as he emphasizes, into the very two tempers which are described by Zephaniah, skepticism and self-indulgence.
All this starts questions for ourselves. Here is evidently the same public temper, which at all periods provokes alike the despair of the reformer and the indignation of the prophet: the criminal apathy of the well-to-do classes sunk in ease and religious indifference. We have today the same mass of obscure, nameless persons, who oppose their almost unconquerable inertia to every movement of reform, and are the drag upon all vital and progressive religion. The great causes of God and Humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults of the Devil, but by the slow, crushing, glacier-like masses of thousands and thousands of indifferent nobodies. Gods causes are never destroyed by being blown up, but by being sat upon. It is not the violent and anarchical whom we have to fear in the war for human progress, but the slow, the staid, the respectable. And the danger of these does not lie in their stupidity. Notwithstanding all their religious profession, it lies in their real skepticism. Respectability may be the precipitate of unbelief. Nay, it is that, however religious its mask, wherever it is mere comfort, decorousness, and conventionality; where, though it would abhor articulately confessing that God does nothing, it virtually means so- says so (as Zephaniah puts it) in its heart, by refusing to share manifest opportunities of serving Him, and covers its sloth and its fear by sneering that God is not with the great crusades of freedom and purity to which it is summoned. In these ways, respectability is the precipitate which unbelief naturally forms in the selfish ease and stillness of so much of our middle-class life. And that is what makes mere respectability so dangerous. Like the unshaken, unstrained wine to which the prophet compares its obscure and muddy comfort, it tends to decay. To some extent our respectable classes are just the dregs and lees of our national life; like all dregs, they are subject to corruption. A great sermon could be preached on the putrescence of respectability-how the ignoble comfort of our respectable classes and their indifference to holy causes lead to sensuality, and poison the very institutions of the home and the family, on which they pride themselves. A large amount of the licentiousness of the present day is not that of outlaw and disordered lives, but is bred from the settled ease and indifference of many of our middle-class families.
It is perhaps the chief part of the sin of the obscure units, which form these great masses of indifference, that they think they escape notice and cover their individual responsibility. At all times many have sought obscurity, not because they are humble, but because they are slothful, cowardly, or indifferent. Obviously it is this temper which is met by the words, “I will search out Jerusalem with lights.” None of us shall escape because we have said, “I will go with the crowd,” or “I am a common man and have no right to thrust myself forward.” We shall be followed and judged, each of us for his or her personal attitude to the great movements of our time. These things are not too high for us: they are our duty; and we cannot escape our duty by slinking into the shadow.
For all this wickedness and indifference Zephaniah sees prepared the Day of the Lord-near, hastening, and very terrible. It sweeps at first in vague desolation and ruin of all things, but then takes the outlines of a solemn slaughter-feast for which Jehovah has consecrated the guests, the dim unnamed armies from the north. Judah shall be invaded, and they that are at ease, who say “Jehovah does nothing” shall be unsettled and routed. One vivid trait comes in like a screech upon the hearts of a people unaccustomed for years to war. “Hark, Jehovahs Day!” cries the prophet. “A strong man-there!-crying bitterly.” From this flash upon the concrete he returns to a great vague terror, in which earthly armies merge in heavenly; battle, siege, storm, and darkness are mingled, and destruction is spread abroad upon the whole earth. The first shades of Apocalypse are upon us.
We may now take the full text of this strong and significant prophecy. We have already given the title. Textual emendations and other points are explained in footnotes.
“I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the ground oracle of Jehovah-sweep man and beast, sweep the fowl of the heaven and the fish of the sea, and I will bring to ruin the wicked and cut off the men of wickedness from the ground- oracle of Jehovah. And I will stretch forth My hand upon Judah; and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will cut off from this place the remnant of the Baal, the names of the priestlings with the priests, and them who upon the housetops bow themselves to the host of heaven, and them who swear by their Melech, and them who have turned from following Jehovah, and who do not seek Jehovah nor have inquired of Him.”
“Silence for the Lord Jehovah! For near is Jehovahs Day. Jehovah has prepared a slaughter, He has consecrated His guests.”
“And it shall be in Jehovahs day of slaughter that I will make visitation upon the princes and the house of the king, and upon all who array themselves in foreign raiment; and I will make visitation upon all who leap over the threshold on that day, who fill their lords house full of violence and fraud. “And on that day oracle of Jehovah-there shall be a noise of crying from the Fishgate, and wailing from the Mishneh, and great havoc on the Heights. Howl, O dwellers in the Mortar, for undone are all the merchant folk, cut off are all the money-dealers. “And in that time it shall be, that I will search Jerusalem with lanterns, and make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who in their hearts say, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil. Their substance shall be for spoil, and their houses for wasting “Near is the great Day of Jehovah, near and very speedy. Hark, the Day of Jehovah! A strong man-there!-crying bitterly A Day of wrath is that Day! Day of siege and blockade, day of stress and distress, day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist, day of the war-horn and battle-roar, up against the fenced cities and against the highest turrets! And I will beleaguer men, and they shall walk like the blind, for they have sinned against Jehovah; and poured out shall their blood be like dust, and the flesh of them like dung. Even their silver, even their gold shall “not avail to save them in the day of Jehovahs wrath, and in the fire of His zeal shall all the earth be devoured, for destruction, yea, sudden collapse shall He make of all the, inhabitants of the earth.”
Upon this vision of absolute doom there follows a qualification for the few meek and righteous. They may be hidden on the day of the Lords anger; but even for them escape is only a possibility Note the absence of all mention of the Divine mercy as the cause of deliverance. Zephaniah has no gospel of that kind. The conditions of escape are sternly ethical-meekness, the doing of justice and righteousness. So austere is our prophet.
“O people unabashed! before that ye become as the drifting chaff before the anger of Jehovah come upon you, before there come upon you the day of Jehovahs wrath; seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance, seek righteousness, seek meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovahs wrath.”