Zephaniah 3:5 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Zephaniah 3:5

3 ^aHer princes in her midst are roaring lions;
Her judges are ^bevening wolves
That leave not a bone till morning.

4 Her ^aprophets are insolent, treacherous people;
Her priests have¹ polluted the sanctuary,
They have done ^bviolence to the law.

5 The Lord is righteous in her midst,
He will do no unrighteousness.
¹Every morning He brings His justice to light;
He never fails,
But ^athe unjust knows no shame.

6 “I have cut off nations,
Their fortresses are devastated;
I have made their streets desolate,
With none passing by.
Their cities are destroyed;
There is no one, no inhabitant.

7 ^aI said, ‘Surely you will fear Me,
You will receive instruction’—
So that her dwelling would not be cut off,
Despite everything for which I punished her.
But¹ they rose early and ^bcorrupted all their deeds.

A Faithful Remnant

8 “Therefore ^await for Me,” says the Lord,
“Until the day I rise up¹ for plunder;
My determination is to ^bgather the nations
To My assembly of kingdoms,
To pour on them My indignation,
All My fierce anger;
All the earth ^cshall be devoured
With the fire of My jealousy.

9 “For then I will restore to the peoples ^aa pure language,
That they all may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him with one accord.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Zephaniah 3:5-7

The Jews regard not God's justice manifested in the midst of them, nor His judgments on the guilty nations around.

The just Lord—Why then are ye so unjust?

is in the midst thereof—He retorts on them their own boast, "Is not the Lord among us" (Micah 3:11)? True He is, but it is for another end from what ye think [CALVIN]; namely, to lead you by the example of His righteousness to be righteous. Leviticus 19:2, "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy" [MAURER]. But CALVIN, "That ye may feel His hand to be the nearer for taking vengeance for your crimes: 'He will not do iniquity' by suffering your sins to go unpunished" (Deuteronomy 32:4).

every morning—literally, "morning by morning." The time in the sultry East for dispensing justice.

bring . . . to light—publicly and manifestly by the teaching of His prophets, which aggravates their guilt; also by samples of His judgments on the guilty.

he faileth not—He is continually setting before you samples of His justice, sparing no pains. Compare Isaiah 5:4; Isaiah 50:4, "he wakeneth morning by morning."

knoweth no shame—The unjust Jews are not shamed by His justice into repentance.

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