Text -- Zephaniah 3:1-13 (NET)

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, stained city is as good as dead; the city filled with oppressors is finished! 3:2 She is disobedient; she refuses correction. She does not trust the Lord; she does not seek the advice of her God. 3:3 Her princes are as fierce as roaring lions; her rulers are as hungry as wolves in the desert, who completely devour their prey by morning. 3:4 Her prophets are proud; they are deceitful men. Her priests defile what is holy; they break God’s laws. 3:5 The just Lord resides within her; he commits no unjust acts. Every morning he reveals his justice. At dawn he appears without fail. Yet the unjust know no shame.

The Lord’s Judgment will Purify

3:6 “I destroyed nations; their walled cities are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; no one lives there. 3:7 I thought, ‘Certainly you will respect me! Now you will accept correction!’ If she had done so, her home would not be destroyed by all the punishments I have threatened. But they eagerly sinned in everything they did. 3:8 Therefore you must wait patiently for me,” says the Lord, “for the day when I attack and take plunder. I have decided to gather nations together and assemble kingdoms, so I can pour out my fury on them– all my raging anger. For the whole earth will be consumed by my fiery anger. 3:9 Know for sure that I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, and will worship him in unison. 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, those who pray to me will bring me tribute. 3:11 In that day you will not be ashamed of all your rebelliousness against me, for then I will remove from your midst those who proudly boast, and you will never again be arrogant on my holy hill. 3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. 3:13 The Israelites who remain will not act deceitfully. They will not lie, and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth. Indeed, they will graze peacefully like sheep and lie down; no one will terrify them.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Zep 3:1

¹ tn The present translation assumes מֹרְאָה (mor’ah) is derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי). The following participle, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”). Another option is to derive the form from מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”); in this case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”). This idea is supported by v. 2. For discussion of the two options, see HALOT 630 s.v. I מרא and J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 206.

² tn Heb “Woe, soiled and stained one, oppressive city.” The verb “is finished” is supplied in the second line. On the Hebrew word הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), see the note on the word “dead” in 2:5.

sn The following verses show that Jerusalem, personified as a woman (“she”), is the referent.

NET Notes: Zep 3:2

¹ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

² tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

³ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

NET Notes: Zep 3:3

¹ tn Or “officials.”

² tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

³ tn Traditionally “judges.”

⁴ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

NET Notes: Zep 3:4

¹ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

² tn Or “defile the temple.”

sn These priests defile what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).

³ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:5

¹ tn The word “resides” is supplied for clarification.

² tn Or “he does no injustice.”

³ tn Heb “gives”; or “dispenses.”

⁴ tn Heb “at the light he is not missing.” Note that NASB (which capitalizes pronouns referring to Deity) has divided the lines differently: “Every morning He brings His justice to light; // He does not fail.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:6

¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

² tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”

³ tn This Hebrew verb (צָדָה, tsadah) occurs only here in the OT, but its meaning is established from the context and from an Aramaic cognate.

⁴ tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:7

¹ tn Heb “said.”

² tn Or “fear.” The second person verb form (“you will respect”) is feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed.

sn God’s judgment of the nations (v. 6) was an object lesson for Israel’s benefit.

³ tn Or “dwelling place.”

⁴ tn Heb “cut off.”

⁵ tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

⁶ tn Heb “But they got up early, they made corrupt all their actions.” The phrase “they got up early” probably refers to their eagerness to engage in sinful activities.

NET Notes: Zep 3:8

¹ tn The second person verb form (“you must wait patiently”) is masculine plural, indicating that a group is being addressed. Perhaps the humble individuals addressed earlier (see 2:3) are in view. Because of Jerusalem’s sin, they must patiently wait for judgment to pass before their vindication arrives.

² tn Heb “when I arise for plunder.” The present translation takes עַד (’ad) as “plunder.” Some, following the LXX, repoint the term עֵד (’ed) and translate, “as a witness” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV). In this case the Lord uses a legal metaphor to picture himself as testifying against his enemies. Adele Berlin takes לְעַד (lÿ’ad) in a temporal sense (“forever”) and translates “once and for all” (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 133).

³ tn Heb “for my decision is.”

⁴ tn Or “certainly.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:9

¹ tn Heb “Certainly [or perhaps, “For”] then I will restore to the nations a pure lip.”

sn I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. This apparently refers to a time when the nations will reject their false idol-gods and offer genuine praise to the one true God.

² tn Heb “so that all of them will call on the name of the Lord.”

³ tn Heb “so that [they] will serve him [with] one shoulder.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:10

¹ tn Or “Nubia”; Heb “Cush.” “Cush” is traditionally assumed to refer to the region south of Egypt, i.e. Nubia or northern Sudan, referred to as “Ethiopia” by classical authors (not the more recent Abyssinia).

² tn Heb “those who pray to me, the daughter of my dispersed ones.” The meaning of the phrase is unclear. Perhaps the text is corrupt at this point or a proper name should be understood. For a discussion of various options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 134-35.

sn It is not certain if those who pray to me refers to the converted nations or to God’s exiled covenant people.

NET Notes: Zep 3:11

¹ sn The second person verbs and pronouns are feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed here.

² tn Heb “In that day you not be ashamed because of all your actions, [in] which you rebelled against me.”

³ tn Heb “the arrogant ones of your pride.”

NET Notes: Zep 3:12

¹ tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

² tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

sn Safety in the Lord’s presence. From the time the Lord introduced his special covenant name (Yahweh) to Moses, it served as a reminder of his protective presence as Israel’s faithful deliverer.

NET Notes: Zep 3:13

¹ tn Or “the remnant of Israel.”

² tn The words “peacefully like sheep” are supplied in the translation for clarification.