1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of aJosiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
The Great Day of the Lord
2 “I will1 utterly consume everything From the face of the land,” Says the Lord;
3 “Ia will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, The fish of the sea, And the1 stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the1 land,” Says the Lord.
4 “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 1I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the aidolatrous priests with the pagan priests—
5 Those awho worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, But who also swear bby Milcom;
6aThose who have turned back from following the Lord, And bhave not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”
7aBe silent in the presence of the Lord God; bFor the day of the Lordis at hand, For cthe Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has1 invited His guests.
8 “And it shall be, In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, That I will punish athe princes and the king’s children, And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
9 In the same day I will punish All those who aleap over the threshold, Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10 “And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord, “The sound of a mournful cry from athe Fish Gate, A wailing from the Second Quarter, And a loud crashing from the hills.
11aWail, you inhabitants of1 Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off.
12 “And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are asettled in complacency, bWho say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’
13 Therefore their goods shall become booty, And their houses a desolation; They shall build houses, but not inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards, but anot drink their wine.”
14aThe great day of the Lordis near; Itis near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out.
15aThat day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of atrumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers.
17 “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall awalk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.”
18aNeither 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 will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.
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, Zephaniah 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.
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