Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zephaniah 3:5
The just LORD [is] in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
5. All these wrongs they practise undeterred and uninstructed by the presence and operations of the righteous Lord in the midst of them.
The just Lord is ] Rather: The LORD is righteous in the midst of her. Jehovah dwells in the midst of Jerusalem and is seen to be righteous both by His word and works, but the people are insensible and receive no impression from His presence and nature. Jer 11:20.
will not do iniquity ] Or, doeth no unrighteousness; Deu 32:4.
Every morning his judgment to light ] Morning by morning, i.e. every morning, constantly, He brings His just judgment or justice to light; His moral rule is as constant and as visible as the material law that brings in the dawn. Cf. Hos 6:5 (read: my judgment goeth forth like the light).
the unjust knoweth no shame ] The unrighteous, untouched by the righteousness of God and receiving no impression from His rule, though exercised before his eyes, pursues his own unrighteous way with no feeling of shame. Jer 3:3; Jer 6:15; Jer 8:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But, beside these evening wolves in the midst of her, there standeth Another in the midst of her, whom they knew not, and so, very near to them although they would not draw near to Him. But He was near, to behold all the iniquities which they did in the very city and place called by His Name and in His very presence; He was in her to protect, foster her with a fathers love, but she, presuming on His mercy, had cast it off. And so He was near to punish, not to deliver; as a Judge, not as a Saviour. Dionysius: God is everywhere, Who says by Jeremiah, I fill heaven and earth Jer 23:24. But since, as Solomon attesteth, The Lord is far from the wicked Pro 15:29, how is He said here to be in the midst of these most wicked men? Because the Lord is far from the wicked, as regards the presence of love and grace; still in His Essence He is everywhere, and in this way He is equally present to all.
The Lord is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity – Dionysius: Since He is the primal rule and measure of all righteousness; therefore from the very fact that He doeth anything, it is just, for He cannot do amiss, being essentially holy. Therefore He will give to every man what he deserves. Therefore we chant, The Lord is upright, and there is no unrighteousness in Him Psa 92:15. justice and injustice, purity and impurity, cannot be together. Gods presence then must destroy the sinners, if not the sin. He was in the midst of them, to sanctify them, giving them His judgments as a pattern of theirs; He will not do iniquity: but if they heeded it not, the judgment would fall upon themselves. It were for God to become such an one as themselves Psa 50:21, and to connive at wickedness, were He to spare at last the impenitent.
Every morning – (Literally, in the morning, in the morning) one after the other, quickly, openly, daily, continually, bringing all secret things, all works of darkness, to light, as He said to David, Thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun 2Sa 12:12. Doth He bring His judgments to light, so that no sin should be hidden in the brightness of His Light, as He said by Hosea, Thy judgments are a light which goeth forth. Cyril: Morning by morning, He shall execute His judgments, that is, in bright day and visibly, not restraining His anger, but bringing it forth in the midst, and making it conspicuous, and, as it were, setting in open vision what He had foreannounced. Day by day God gives some warning of His judgments. By chastisements which are felt to be His on this side or on that or all around, He gives ensamples which speak to the sinners heart. He faileth not. As God said by Habakkuk, that His promises, although they seem to linger, were not behind Hab 2:3 the real time, which lay in the Divine Mind, so, contrariwise, neither are His judgments. His hand is never missing at the appointed time. But the unjust, he, whose very being and character, iniquity, is the exact contrary to what he had said of the perfection of God, Who doth not iniquity, or, as Moses had taught them in his song, all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He Deu 32:4. Knoweth no shame, as God saith by Jeremiah, Thou refusedst to be ashamed Jer 3:3. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush Jer 6:15; Jer 8:12. Even thus they would not be ashamed of their sins, that they might be converted and God might heal them Isa 6:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. The just Lord is in the midst thereof] He sees, marks down, and will punish all these wickednesses.
Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light] The sense is, says Bp. Newcome, “Not a day passes but we see instances of his goodness to righteous men, and of his vengeance on the wicked.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The just Lord is in the midst thereof: though unjust princes, judges, prophets, and priests do not think so, yet the Lord who is most just is in the midst of them; possibly the sanhedrim; he observeth all, condemneth their violence and injustice, he is sovereign as Lord, and just as Judge. lie will not do iniquity; to him it appertaineth to judge all, therefore the unjust shall be punished as well as the just approved.
Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light; daily he discovereth his displeasure against the wicked, and punisheth them.
He faileth not; lets not one fit season slip to convince and awaken secure sinners, by public and visible punishments, or judgments.
But the unjust knoweth no shame; but the wicked Jews proceed impudently, without shame, and without fear or amendment: there is no hope of better where is no shame for worst of doings, Jer 3:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5-7. The Jews regard not God’sjustice manifested in the midst of them, nor His judgments on theguilty nations around.
The just LordWhy thenare ye so unjust?
is in the midst thereofHeretorts on them their own boast, “Is not the Lord among us”(Mic 3:11)? True He is, but itis for another end from what ye think [CALVIN];namely, to lead you by the example of His righteousness to berighteous. Le 19:2, “Yeshall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy” [MAURER].But CALVIN, “That yemay feel His hand to be the nearer for taking vengeance for yourcrimes: ‘He will not do iniquity’ by suffering your sins to gounpunished” (De 32:4).
every morningliterally,”morning by morning.” The time in the sultry East fordispensing justice.
bring . . . to lightpubliclyand manifestly by the teaching of His prophets, which aggravatestheir guilt; also by samples of His judgments on the guilty.
he faileth notHe iscontinually setting before you samples of His justice, sparing nopains. Compare Isa 5:4; Isa 50:4,”he wakeneth morning by morning.”
knoweth no shameTheunjust Jews are not shamed by His justice into repentance.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The just Lord [is] in the midst thereof,…. In the midst of the city of Jerusalem, where those princes, judges, prophets and priests, were, that behaved so ill, and saw and observed all their evil actions; and yet they were not deterred from them by his presence, even though he is the “just” and Holy One, who loves righteousness, and hates iniquity, and will punish for it; nor were they directed and allured to do what is righteous and good by his example. This character of the just Lord well agrees with Christ, who is perfectly righteous in both his natures, and in the execution of his offices; and is the author of righteousness to his people; and this is to be understood of his incarnation and personal presence in human nature in Jerusalem, and in the temple, where he taught his doctrine, and wrought his miracles:
he will not do iniquity; Christ was holy in his nature, harmless in his life; he knew no sin; he did not commit any; no violence was done by him, or guile found in him; he was not guilty of sin against God, nor of doing any injury to men; and should have been imitated by the men of the age in which he lived, as well as by others; and should have been valued and esteemed, and not traduced and vilified as he was, as if he had been the worst of men:
every morning doth he bring his judgment to light; the doctrine of the Gospel, which he set in the clearest light, and preached with the greatest constancy, day after day, morning by morning, and very early in the morning, when the people came to hear him in the temple; and he continued in it all the day; he waking morning by morning to this service, as was predicted of him, Isa 1:4 see Lu 21:37:
he faileth not; in this work of preaching the word, with the greatest evidence and assiduity:
but the unjust knoweth no shame: those unjust persons, who aspersed the character of Christ, and traduced his doctrine and miracles; though there was nothing in his life, nor in his ministry, that could be justly blamed, yet they blushed not at their sin and wickedness; and though they were sharply reproved by him, and their errors in principle, and sins in practice, were exposed by him, yet they were not ashamed; such were the hardness and obduracy of their hearts.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jerusalem sins in this manner, without observing that Jehovah is constantly making known to it His own righteousness. Zep 3:5. “Jehovah is just in the midst of her; does no wrong: morning by morning He sets His justice in the light, not failing; but the unjust knoweth no shame. Zep 3:6. I have cut off nations: their battlements are laid waste; I have devastated their streets, so that no one else passeth over: their cities are laid waste, that there is no man there, not an inhabitant more.” Zep 3:5 is attached adversatively to what precedes without a particle, in this sense: And yet Jehovah is just beqirbah , i.e., in the midst of the city filled with sinners. The words recal to mind the description of the divine administration in Deu 32:4, where Jehovah is described as and . It follows from this that tsaddq is not to be referred to the fact that God does not leave the sins of the nation unpunished (Ros.), but to the fact that He commits no wrong: so that is only a negative paraphrase of tsaddq . His justice, i.e., the righteousness of His conduct, He puts in the light every morning ( babboqer babboqer , used distributively, as in Exo 16:21; Lev 6:5, etc.), not by rewarding virtue and punishing wickedness (Hitzig, Strauss, after the Chaldee, Jerome, Theodoret, and Cyril), according to which mishpat would signify judgment; but by causing His law and justice to be proclaimed to the nation daily “by prophets, whose labour He employs to teach the nation His laws, and who exert themselves diligently by exhorting and admonishing every day, to call it to bring forth better fruit, but all in vain (Ros., Ewald, etc.; cf. Hos 6:5). It is at variance with the context to take these words as referring to the judgments of God. These are first spoken of in Zep 3:6, and the correspondence between these two verses and Zep 3:7 and Zep 3:8 shows that we must not mix up together Zep 3:5 and Zep 3:6, or interpret Zep 3:5 from Zep 3:6. Just as the judgment is threatened there (Zep 3:8) because the people have accepted no correction, and have not allowed themselves to be moved to the fear of Jehovah, so also in Zep 3:5 and Zep 3:6 the prophet demonstrates the righteousness of God from His double administration: viz., first, from the fact that He causes His justice to be proclaimed to the people, that they may accept correction; and secondly, by pointing to the judgments upon the nations. paraphrases the idea of “infallibly;” the literal meaning is, that there is no morning in which the justice is wanting. Hitzig, Strauss, and others have rendered it quite unsuitably, “God does not suffer Himself to be wanting,” i.e., does not remain absent. But the perverse one, viz., the nation sunk in unrighteousness, knows no disgrace, to make it ashamed of its misdeeds. In Zep 3:6 Jehovah is introduced as speaking, to set before the nations in the most impressive manner the judgments in which He has manifested His righteousness. The two hemistichs are formed uniformly, each consisting of two clauses, in which the direct address alternates with an indefinite, passive construction: I have cut off nations, their battlements have been laid waste, etc. Goym are neither those nations who are threatened with ruin in Zep 2:4-15, nor the Canaanites, who have been exterminated by Israel, but nations generally, which have succumbed to the judgments of God, without any more precise definition. Pinnoth , the battlements of the fortress-walls and towers (Zep 1:16), stand per synecdochen for castles or fortifications. Chutsoth are not streets of the city, but roads, and stand synecdochically for the flat country. This is required by the correspondence of the clauses. For just as the cities answer to the castles, so do chutsoth to the nations. Nitsdu , from tsadah , not in the sense of waylaying (Exo 21:13; 1Sa 24:12), but in accordance with Aramaean usage, to lay waste, answering to nashammu , for which Jeremiah uses nitt e tsu in Jer 4:26.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here the Prophet throws back against hypocrites what they were wont to pretend, when they sought wickedly to reject every instruction and all warnings; for they said, that God dwelt in the midst of them, like the Papists at the present day, who raise up this as their shield against us,—that the Church is the pillar of the truth. Hence they think that all their wicked deeds are defended by this covering. So the Jews at that time had this boast ever on their lips,—We are notwithstanding the holy people of God, and he dwells in the midst of us, for he is worshipped in the Temple, which has been built, not according to men’s will, but by his command; for that voice proceeded not from earth, but came from heaven, ‘This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell.’ Psa 132:14. Since then the Jews were inflated with this presumption, the Prophet concedes what they claimed, that God dwelt among them; but it was for a far different purpose, which was, that they might understand, that his hand was nigh to punish their sins. This is one thing.
Jehovah is in the midst of them; Granted, he says; I allow that he dwells in this city; for he has commanded a temple to be built for him on Mount Sion, he has ordered a holy altar for himself; but why does God dwell among you, and has preferred this habitation to all others? Surely, he says, he will not do iniquity. Consider now what the nature of God is; for when he purposed to dwell among you, he certainly did not deny himself, nor did he cease to be what he is. There is therefore no reason for you to imagine, as though God intended, for the sake of those to whom he bound himself, to throw aside his own justice, or intended to pollute himself by the defilements of men. He warns the Jews, that they absurdly blended these things together. God then who dwells in the midst of you, will not do iniquity; that is, He will not approve of your evil deeds; and though he may for a time connive at them, he will not yet bear with them continually. Do not therefore foolishly flatter yourselves, as though God were the approver of your wickedness.
Some apply this to the people,—that they ought not to have done iniquity; but this is a strained exposition, and altogether foreign to the context. Most other interpreters give this meaning, that God is just and will do no iniquity, for he had sufficient reasons for executing his vengeance on a people so wicked. They hence think, that the Prophet anticipates the Jews, lest they murmured, as though the Lord was cruel or too rigid. He will not do iniquity, that is, Though the Lord may inflict on you a most grievous punishment, yet he cannot be arraigned by you as unjust; and ye in vain contend with him, for he will ever be found to be a righteous judge. But this also is a very frigid explanation. Let us bear in mind what I have already said,—that the Prophet here, by way of irony, concedes to the Jews, that God dwelt among them, but afterwards brings against them what they thought was a protection to them,— God dwells in the midst of you; I allow it, he says; but is not he a just God? Do not then dream that he is one like yourselves, that he approves of your evil deeds. God will not do iniquity; ye cannot prevail with him to renounce himself, or to change his own nature. Why then does God dwell in the midst of you? In the morning, in the morning, he says, his judgment will he bring forth to light; the Lord will daily bring forth his judgment. How this is to be understood, we shall explain tomorrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zep. 3:5.] The cause not with God. He is very near, declares his displeasure with sin, and daily brings all things to light. Morning] Lit. in the morning, in the morning. Shame] of penitence and conversion.
Zep. 3:6. Cut off] Judgments appealed to as warnings (ch. 2); to consider severity and goodness.
Zep. 3:7.] Threatened danger would be averted if the people would turn from evil. But] Instead of repenting, they rose early, became more zealous in wickedness, prepared themselves for it, like parties starting early for a journey. Hence punishment.
HOMILETICS
GODS JUSTICE PROVED TO A GUILTY PEOPLE.Zep. 3:5-6
No argument against the righteousness of God can be presented by those who have been warned, spared, and at last condemned. If iniquity be determined, and the sinner becomes incorrigible, the course of justice is clear. God could not rightly be taxed with injustice in punishing Jerusalem with greater suffering than the offence deserved. This is proved
I. By Gods holy character. The just Lord is in the midst thereof. He is essentially holy, eternally just; the primal law of right to all. He is
1. Just in himself; and
2. Just to others. He will not do iniquity. He is in the midst of men who are polluted and oppressive; reproving wrong, and giving an example of right. Hence, if sinners heed not, God cannot connive at their wickedness, and become as one of themselves (Psa. 50:21). The Lord is upright, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
II. By Gods righteous administration. God not only dwelt in the temple; but gave clear intimations of duty, bright manifestations of equity, which they heeded not. Gods condemnations of evil practices were
1. Open. In the day, not in secret.
2. Clear. He brought his judgment to light. All secret things, all works of darkness, were exposed and reproved (2Sa. 12:12).
3. Continual. Every morning; morning by morning, day by day, his voice was heard and his judgments conspicuous. He faileth not in judgment and mercy; but they knew no shame, were conscious of no sin. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
III. By Gods terrible judgments upon others. I have cut off the nations, &c. (Zep. 3:6). Judgments upon others had always been set before them as a warning. When about to enter the inheritance (Lev. 18:24-26; Lev. 20:23), they were cautioned. When they got possession the ruins of cities were silent preachers of the results of sin (Isa. 17:9). They had been the instruments of inflicting judgments, and lived in the memories of Gods visitations upon others. Fortified cities had been destroyed, mighty towers levelled to the dust, and nations completely ruined, to admonish them, but all in vains How earnest is God in seeking the sinner, but how terrible the punishment at last! I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them.
AGGRAVATIONS OF HUMAN GUILT.Zep. 3:5-7
What aggravated their guilt till it became intolerable, and put them beyond all mercy save the mercy of judgment, was
1. That God had given them a pure law of life, and himself administered it among them. In other cities, such as Gaza or Nineveh, the presence and the law of God were but obscurely revealed. Men were left to grope after the Unknown, if haply they might find him; to infer a spiritual presence from the operation of physical laws; to deduce a Divine rule from the imperfect and confused utterances of reason and conscience. In Jerusalem, God and his will were set in the light; the history of the chosen race, the services of the temple, the voices and scriptures of the prophets, the national habits of thought, and manner of life, loudly proclaimed God to be their God. Who should know him if they did not? and who do his will if they disobeyed it? But with so pure light of goodness in their midst, they wrapped themselves in darkness, and hated the light which reproved their deeds. But the unjust know no shame.
2. That in the destruction inflicted upon neighbouring kingdoms, he had constantly warned them of the inevitable results of violating that law (Zep. 3:6). They had seen race after race cut off, their battlements laid waste, their cities battered down, and their streets reduced to such ruinous desolation that no man dwelt in them, nor so much as passed through them. What were these judgments but the law of God writ large, and illustrated so impressively as to arrest the attention of the most heedless, and to rouse a saving fear in the stubborn and impenitent? But even these glaring and portentous illustrations of Gods wrath against sin and all who cleave to it, had been wasted. They were unmoved, or moved only for a moment, under shocks and alarms. Only a judgment more severe than any they had seen or known could constrain them to penitence, through penitence to righteousness, and through righteousness to peace. The nation that did not turn pale (ch. Zep. 2:1).
3. That much as they suffered, they had not accepted correction, nor learned that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Zep. 3:7). Not only had they seen a day of the Lord darken other lands, and judgments desolate heathen cities. They themselves had been visited with judgment, smitten again and again till the whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint. The whole body politic was bruised, and wounded, and sore. Their whole past history was full of Divine chastenings. What was their meaning? what were they sent to say? Only fear God, accept correction, let it produce its natural effect upon you, and all will be right. Corrections were sent to them that their land and city might be spared. But if they be rejected, they harden and deprave. Jerusalem had been content to give the day to disobedience and mutiny. Now as if it were not long enough for the sins they were eager to commit, they rose up early in the morning to corrupt all their doings, so shameless were they, so incorrigible [Preachers Lantern. Vol. II. Adapted].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zep. 3:5. In the midst. Gods presence with an apostate people will not save from wrath, but will bring it nearer to them. Is not the Lord among us? was their boast (Mic. 3:11). True, he is, but it is for another end from what ye think [Calvin].
He faileth not.
1. In presence;
2. In promise;
3. In help. He continually sets before us examples of judgment and mercy. He wakeneth morning by morning (Isa. 5:4; Isa. 1:4). He does not fail to visit at the time looked for, though he may seem to forbear or linger behind (Hab. 2:3).
Shame.
1. Many in the Church and in the nation acknowledge God, yet sin against the clear light of the Word.
2. When such are mad in their sin and rush to ruin, it is a presage of their destruction when the Word has no influence upon them; a token that judgment must come, notwithstanding warnings, when the unjust knoweth no shame [Hutcheson].
Zep. 3:6-7.
1. The chastisement of others is designed to improve us. The design is benevolent; so their dwelling should not be cut off. The method is suitable; howsoever I punished them. The results are reasonable; surely thou wilt fear.
2. If the warning is unheeded we shall ourselves be punished. No words could be more simple and direct than these; none could state more plainly the merciful and Divine purpose of judgment; the true function of the miseries men are called to endure. These judgments and miseries come to teach us the fear of the Lord; that is, to save us from all fear. So soon as we accept them as corrections of our sins, their end is answered; henceforth there is no anger in them, no injurious pain, but only a Divine love and goodwill. And if no statement of the meaning and function of suffering can be more plain than this, surely none can be more consolatory. For, according to Zephaniah, it comes only for our good, for our highest good; to teach us the true wisdom, and to make us perfect. When once we accept it, its end being reached, there is no reason why it should not either pass away or be changed into the stay and stimulus of our life.
Long unaffected, undismayed,
In pleasures path secure I strayd
Thou madst me feel thy chastning rod,
And straight I turnd unto my God.
Instruction.Other mens woes should be our warnings; others sufferings our sermons; others lashes our lessons; Gods house of correction, a school of instruction where we should hear and fear, and do no more so (Deu. 17:13). He that trembleth not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling, said that martyr [Trapp].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Zep. 3:5. Just. If there be one truth that speaks throughout the Bible like the voice of God, and resounds with all the grandeur of the Divine intonation, it is the truth that God does not look with an equal eye upon the evil and the good, that He is a discriminator of character, a lover of that which is right, and a hater of that which is wrong [H. W. Beecher].
Zep. 3:6-7. The desolation is complete, within as well as without; ruin itself is hardly so desolate as the empty habitations and forsaken streets, once full of life, where
The echoes and the empty tread
Would sound like voices from the dead. [Pusey.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5-7) In contradistinction to this universal corruption, Jehovah daily exemplifies the law of righteousness, yet sinners are not moved to repentance (Zep. 3:5). He sets forth the great judgments He has executed on other sinful nations, but the warning is not heeded (Zep. 3:6-7).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Zep 3:5. Every morning, &c. That is, “Every day he fails not to give fresh evidences of his justice upon these princes, false prophets, and idolatrous priests.” The allusion is to the custom of the Jews and neighbouring nations, who passed judgments only in the morning.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Zep 3:5 The just LORD [is] in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
Ver. 5. The just Lord is in the midst thereof ] The unjust princes were said to be in the midst of Jerusalem as roaring lions, Zep 3:3 . Here the just Lord is also said to be in the midst of her, as a sin revenging judge. He sitteth as God in the midst of those uncircumcised vicegods (as I may in the worst sense best term them), he sets a jealous eye upon all their unrighteous proceedings, and is with them in the judgment. Neither eyeth he them only, but all others in like sort; as the king in the Gospel came in to see his guests. His eye, like a well drawn picture, taketh view of all that come into the room. Oh that we could be in his fear all the day! Oh that we would ever walk in the sense of his presence, and light of his countenance! Noli peccare, nam Deus videt, angeli astant, diabolus accusabit, conscientia testabitur, Infernus cruciabit. Sin not; for God sees you, the good angels stand about you, Satan will accuse you, conscience will give in evidence against you, hell will torment you. A reverend and religious man had this written before his eyes in his study.
He will not do iniquity
Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light
He faileth not
But the unjust knoweth no shame
a A bluish dye the ancient British warriors covered themselves with when going to battle to make their appearance more terrible to the enemy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in the midst thereof. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 5:3. Deu 7:21). App-92. Compare Zep 3:15.
iniquity. Hebrew. ‘avah. App-44.
every morning = morning by morning. See Psa 101:8.
unjust = perverse. Hebrew. ‘aval. See App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
just: Deu 32:4, Psa 99:3, Psa 99:4, Psa 145:17, Ecc 3:16, Ecc 3:17, Isa 45:21, Hab 1:3, Zec 9:9, Rom 3:26, 1Pe 1:17
is in: Zep 3:15, Zep 3:17, Deu 23:14, Isa 12:6, Eze 48:35, Mic 3:11, Zec 2:5
he will: Gen 18:25, Job 8:3, Job 34:10, Job 34:17-19
every morning: Heb. morning by morning, Isa 28:19, Isa 33:2, Isa 50:4, Jer 21:12, Lam 3:23
bring: Psa 37:6, Isa 42:3, Isa 42:4, Mic 7:9, Luk 12:2, Rom 2:5, 1Co 4:5
but: Jer 3:3, Jer 6:15, Jer 8:12
Reciprocal: Psa 92:15 – and Isa 26:7 – most Jer 12:1 – Righteous Lam 1:18 – Lord Eze 18:25 – my Hos 6:5 – and thy judgments are as Hos 14:9 – for Rom 2:2 – judgment 1Th 4:6 – go Rev 15:3 – just
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zep 3:5. The Just Lord is a significant term in view of the conditions. It denotes that a severe chastisement is to be meted out against these wicked princes. God’s disapproval of the corruptions is made known every day, yet the unjust leaders are not impressed thereby but continue in their wickedness.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zep 3:5. The just Lord is in the midst thereof Namely, of Jerusalem, and sees all these things. He will not do iniquity He is just and holy, and will do nothing but what is right; nor will he suffer wickedness to pass unpunished. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light The sense is, not a day passes but we see instances of his goodness to righteous men, and of his vengeance on the wicked. Newcome. The expression, every morning, alludes to the custom of the Jews and neighbouring nations, who passed judgment only in the morning. He faileth not He never omits thus to act. But the unjust knew not shame The wicked continue to be hardened in their sins, and will not be induced to forsake them by any consideration, either of the baseness and evil of their conduct, or of the judgments of God continually inflicted on transgressors.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:5 The {c} just LORD [is] in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
(c) The wicked thus boasted that God was ever among them, but the Prophet answers that that cannot excuse their wickedness: for God will not bear with their sins. Yet he did patiently abide and sent his Prophets continually to call them to repentance, but he profited nothing.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
In contrast to these crooked leaders, Yahweh was straight, and He was still in Jerusalem. He would do no injustice, as the civil and religious leaders did. He performed justice every day as faithfully as the rising of the sun. Yet the unjust leaders of Jerusalem knew no shame for the wickedness that they consistently practiced.