Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• 3. David's longing for God's kingdom 14:7
  In the context the enemy of God's people is all the ungodly of the world from the beginning of history. David longed for God to save His people from these wicked antagonists. Zion was the place where the ark and the Lord resi...
• 3. Yearning for God's reign 53:6
  David longed for the time when God would initiate salvation for Israel from Zion. When he wrote, Israel was at least partially under a hostile foreign power's control. The psalmist believed God would one day restore His peopl...
• Message24
  Contemporary culture has affected the interpretation of this book more than that of most other Bible books. For many years believers considered this book to be a revelation of God's love for the believer and the believer's lo...
• The depth of Judah's sin 5:1-9
  Now God gave His people reasons for the coming judgment. He stressed social and personal sins particularly."Jeremiah now appreciates the moral necessity for God's judgment of His people, as he sees clearly with his own eyes t...
• Jacob's distress and deliverance 30:4-11
  30:4 This oracle concerns all the Israelites, those of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.30:5-6 A time of great terror, dread, and unrest was coming. Men would behave as though they were in labor; they would hold themse...
• B. Jeremiah's hope 3:19-40
  3:19 Jeremiah prayed that the Lord would remember his affliction and bitterness (cf. Job 13:15).3:20-21 He himself remembered something that gave him hope.3:22 The prophet remembered that the Lord's loyal love (Heb. hesed) ne...
• An application of this history lesson 20:39-44
  20:39 For now the Israelites to whom Ezekiel spoke could continue to practice idolatry, not with the Lord's blessing of course, but in the future they would listen to and obey the Lord. Then they would make His name common no...
• Yahweh's judgment of the enemy 38:17-23
  38:17 The Lord asked rhetorically if it was Gog about whom He had spoken through His other servants the prophets many years earlier. "Are you he of whom the prophets spoke?"Yes, he was. This was not the first revelation of a ...
• B. God's judgment on Israel's enemy nations 3:1-17
  God's judgment on unbelievers would accompany the spiritual renewal and deliverance of His own in the future day of the Lord. As God promised to wipe out the locusts for despoiling Judah, now He promised to do the same to the...
• Another call for individual repentance 5:14-15
  5:14 Again the prophet urged the Israelites to seek good rather than evil so they could live (cf. vv. 4-6). Then the sovereign, almighty Yahweh would truly be with them, as they professed He was even as they practiced their i...
• A description of inevitable judgment 5:18-20
  5:18 The prophet began his message by crying, "Alas"(Heb., hoy, woe, oh). This word announced coming doom, another funeral lament (cf. v. 1). Many Israelites in Amos' day were looking forward to a coming day of the Lord. Form...
• D. A prediction of future regathering and leadership 2:12-13
  The message of the false prophets was not completely wrong; it just presented the positive aspects of God's promises to Israel but omitted the negative. Micah's message had been mainly negative; the people needed to repent or...
• 1. The guilt of Israel's civil rulers 3:1-4
  3:1 This second oracle begins like the first and third ones, with a summons to hear the prophet's message (cf. 1:2; 6:1). The initial "And I said"ties this oracle to the preceding one and provides continuity. Micah asked rhet...
• Zion's future greatness 4:6-8
  4:6 In "that day"the Lord also promised to assemble His people whom He had allowed the nations to abuse. This will occur when He turns the tide for Israel and begins to bless her, namely, at the beginning of the Millennium.Th...
• Distinctive features
  The Book of Zephaniah has been called "a compendium of the oracles of the prophets."9This is true for two reasons. First, Zephaniah's general message is similar to that of most of the other writing prophets. Second, he used t...
• Message12
  The key to the Book of Zephaniah is the phrase "the day of the Lord."This phrase appears in most of the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. As we saw in Joel, "the day of the Lord"can be a past day, a day in the relati...
• Outline
  I. Heading 1:1II. The day of Yahweh's judgment 1:2-3:8A. Judgment on the world 1:2-3B. Judgment on Judah 1:4-2:31. The cause for Judah's judgment 1:4-62. The course of Judah's judgment 1:7-133. The imminence and horrors of Ju...
• II. The day of Yahweh's judgment 1:2--3:8
  Zephaniah's prophecies are all about "the day of the LORD."He revealed two things about this "day,"first, that it would involve judgment (1:2-3:8) and, second, that it would eventuate in blessing (3:9-20). The judgment portio...
• A. The judgment on the world 1:2-3
  1:2 Yahweh revealed that He would completely remove everything from the face of the earth (cf. 2 Pet. 3:10-12). This is one of the most explicit announcement of the total devastation of planet Earth in the Old Testament (cf. ...
• B. The judgment on Judah 1:4-2:3
  The Lord gave more details about this worldwide judgment. It would include Judah. Zephaniah gave more particulars concerning the fate of Judah (1:4-2:3) and Jerusalem (3:1-7) than about the fate of the rest of humanity (1:2-3...
• 2. The course of Judah's judgment 1:7-13
  1:7 In view of the inevitability of coming judgment for idolatry, it was appropriate for the Judeans to be quiet before sovereign Yahweh (cf. Hab. 2:20)."This is a call to the people of Judah to cease every manner of oppositi...
• 1. Judgment coming on Philistia 2:4-7
  2:4 The prophet announced that destruction would overtake four of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis (cf. Isa. 14:28-32; Jer. 47; Ezek. 25:15-17; Amos 1:6-8). He listed them from south to north. Gath had evidently d...
• D. Judgment on Jerusalem 3:1-7
  Having announced that divine judgment would come on the nations around Judah (2:4-15), the prophet returned to the subject of Yahweh's judgment on the Chosen People (cf. 1:4-2:3), but this time he focused more particularly on...
• E. Judgment on all nations 3:8
  The people of Jerusalem needed to wait a little longer. The Lord would soon rise up as a devouring animal to consume His prey. He had determined to gather nations and kingdoms that were wicked, including Judah, and pour His b...
• III. The day of Yahweh's blessing 3:9-20
  Having finished the revelation dealing with God's judgment of the world in a coming day (1:2-3:8), Zephaniah now announced that He would bring great blessing to all humankind after that judgment (3:9-20). As in the section of...
• A. The purification of the nations 3:9
  "Then"signals a major change in time as well as in the focus of Zephaniah's prophecy. It is a hinge word that serves as a transition from judgment in the Tribulation to blessing in the Millennium. Then, after these judgments ...
• B. The transformation of Israel 3:10-20
  Zephaniah had received from the Lord much more revelation about what He would do for Israel following the period of worldwide punishment. This section is also chiastic in its thought structure.AIsrael's purification 3:10-13BI...
• 1. Israel's purification 3:10-13
  3:10 The descendants of the Lord's dispersed ones, the Jews, would bring him offerings of worship from the farthest corners of the earth. The rivers of Ethiopia, probably the Nile and its tributaries, were at the edge of the ...
• 2. Israel's and Yahweh's rejoicing 3:14-17
  3:14 In view of these wonderful prospects, Zephaniah called the people of Jerusalem and all the Israelites to shout for joy with all their hearts."Although the command is aimed at the future Jerusalem, no doubt the message wo...
• 3. Israel's regathering 3:18-20
  3:18 In the past Jews who lived far from Jerusalem were very sad because they could not travel to Jerusalem to observe Israel's annual feasts. They suffered a certain criticism from their fellow Jews for living far away from ...
• The advent of Zion's King 9:9-10
  "This text is one of the most messianically significant passages of all the Bible, in both the Jewish and Christian traditions. Judaism sees in it a basis for a royal messianic expectation, whereas the NT and Christianity see...
• 3. Disdainful attitudes 1:12-14
  1:11 It was particularly inappropriate for Israel's priests to despise Yahweh because the time would come when people from all over the world would honor His name (person; cf. Isa. 45:22-25; 49:5-7; 59:19). Incense accompanie...
• C. The coming judgment of Israel 3:17-4:3
  3:17 Almighty Yahweh announced that He would honor those who feared Him as His own on the day He prepared His own possessions. This probably refers to the day of the Lord (cf. v. 2; 4:1, 3) when He will resurrect Old Testamen...
• 1. The prophecy about Bethlehem 2:1-12
  2:1-2 When did the Magi visit Jesus in Bethlehem?74There are several factors that point to a time about a year after Jesus' birth. First, Matthew described Jesus as a "child"(Gr. paidion, v. 11), not an "infant"(Gr. brephos, ...
• The two trees 7:15-20 (cf. Luke 6:43-44)
  7:15 Jesus here sounded a warning that the Old Testament prophets also gave about false prophets (cf. Deut. 13; 18; Jer. 6:13-15; 8:8-12; Ezek. 13; 22:27; Zeph 3:4). He did not explain exactly what they would teach, only that...
• 3. Mary's visit to Elizabeth 1:39-56
  This section brings the parallel stories of John's birth and Jesus' birth together. The two sons had their own identities and individual greatness, but Jesus was superior. John began his ministry of exalting Jesus in his moth...
• The fate of the guilty predicted 23:27-31
  Luke is the only evangelist who recorded this incident. He apparently did so because the fate of Jerusalem was one of his special interests. He had already recorded several warnings that Jesus had given to the people of Jerus...
• 5. Jesus' triumphal entry 12:12-19 (cf. Matt. 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40)
  The importance of this incident in Jesus' ministry is evident from the fact that all four Gospel evangelists recorded it. Matthew and Mark placed this event before Mary's anointing of Jesus in Simon's house (vv. 1-8). However...
• 2. Philip's ministry to the Ethiopian eunuch 8:26-40
  Luke recorded this incident to show the method and direction of the church's expansion to God-fearing Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism at this time. This man had visited Jerusalem to worship, was studying the Old Testam...
• Paul and Barnabas' return to Jerusalem 15:1-5
  15:1 The men from Judea who came down to Antioch appear to have been Jewish Christians who took the former view of Christianity described above. They believed a person could not become a Christian without first becoming a Jew...
• B. Thanksgiving 1:4-9
  Paul followed his salutation with an expression of gratitude for his original readers, as he usually did in his epistles. In this case the focus of his thanksgiving was on God's grace in giving the Corinthians such great spir...
• C. Personal watchfulness 5:1-11
  In view of the imminency of Christ's return Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to be ready to prepare them to meet the Lord at any time."The former [paragraph, i.e., 4:13-18] offered instruction concerning the dead in Christ; th...
• B. Encouragement to persevere 1:5-10
  These verses explain what God's future righteous judgment is.1:5 Paul explained that suffering for Christ demonstrates the believer's worthiness to participate in God's kingdom. A hot fire under gold ore separates the gold fr...
• A. The beginning of the day of the Lord 2:1-5
  2:1-2 Paul introduced his teaching by urging his readers not to be shaken from their adherence to the truth he had taught them by what they were hearing from others. The issue centered on Paul's instructions concerning the Ra...
• The triumph of the 144,000 14:1-5
  14:1 "And I looked"(Gr. kai eidon) introduces three scenes in chapter 14 (vv. 1, 6, 14), as this phrase did twice in chapter 13 (vv. 1, 11). "Behold"(Gr. idou, cf. v. 14) calls special attention to the greatness of the sight ...
• The judgment of the harlot 17:15-18
  17:15 The angel next helped John understand the identity of the waters (v. 1). Water is a common symbol for people in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps. 18:4, 16; 124:4; Isa. 8:7; Jer. 47:2). The harlot exercises a controlling infl...
• M. The millennial reign of Christ ch. 20
  John recorded his vision of Jesus Christ's reign on the earth for 1, 000 years to inform his readers of what would take place after He returns to the earth."Few verses in the Bible are more crucial to the interpretation of th...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• Zion's Joy And God's
  Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem … 17. He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.'--Zephani...