12:1 At that time 1 you will say:
“I praise you, O Lord,
for even though you were angry with me,
your anger subsided, and you consoled me.
3:14 Shout for joy, Daughter Zion! 2
Shout out, Israel!
Be happy and boast with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!
3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; 3
he has turned back your enemy.
Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!
You no longer need to fear disaster.
3:16 On that day they will say 4 to Jerusalem,
“Don’t be afraid, Zion!
Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! 5
3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;
he is a warrior who can deliver.
He takes great delight in you; 6
he renews you by his love; 7
he shouts for joy over you.” 8
3:18 “As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals –
I took them away from you;
they became tribute and were a source of shame to you. 9
3:19 Look, at that time I will deal with those who mistreated you.
I will rescue the lame sheep 10
and gather together the scattered sheep.
I will take away their humiliation
and make the whole earth admire and respect them. 11
3:20 At that time I will lead you –
at the time I gather you together. 12
Be sure of this! 13 I will make all the nations of the earth respect and admire you 14
when you see me restore you,” 15 says the Lord.
1:7 (Look! He is returning with the clouds, 16
and every eye will see him,
even 17 those who pierced him, 18
and all the tribes 19 on the earth will mourn because 20 of him.
This will certainly come to pass! 21 Amen.) 22
19:1 After these things I heard what sounded like the loud voice of a vast throng in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
19:2 because his judgments are true and just. 23
For he has judged 24 the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,
and has avenged the blood of his servants 25 poured out by her own hands!” 26
19:3 Then 27 a second time the crowd shouted, “Hallelujah!” The smoke rises from her forever and ever. 28 19:4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures threw themselves to the ground 29 and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying: “Amen! Hallelujah!”
19:5 Then 30 a voice came from the throne, saying:
“Praise our God
all you his servants,
and all you who fear Him,
both the small and the great!”
19:6 Then 31 I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng, like the roar of many waters and like loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting: 32
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God, 33 the All-Powerful, 34 reigns!
19:7 Let us rejoice 35 and exult
and give him glory,
because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
1 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
2 sn This phrase is used as an epithet for the city and the nation. “Daughter” may seem extraneous in English but consciously joins the various epithets and metaphors of Israel and Jerusalem as a woman, a device used to evoke sympathy from the reader.
3 tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.
4 tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”
6 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”
7 tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).
8 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”
9 tn Heb “The ones grieving from an assembly I gathered from you they were, tribute upon her, a reproach.” Any translation of this difficult verse must be provisional at best. The present translation assumes three things: (1) The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “assembly” is causal (the individuals are sorrowing because of the assemblies or festivals they are no longer able to hold). (2) מַשְׂאֵת (mas’et) means “tribute” and refers to the exiled people being treated as the spoils of warfare (see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 385-86). (3) The third feminine singular suffix refers to personified Jerusalem, which is addressed earlier in the verse (the pronominal suffix in “from you” is second feminine singular). For other interpretive options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 146.
10 tn The word “sheep” is supplied for clarification. As in Mic 4:6-7, the exiles are here pictured as injured and scattered sheep whom the divine shepherd rescues from danger.
11 tn Heb “I will make them into praise and a name, in all the earth, their shame.” The present translation assumes that “their shame” specifies “them” and that “name” stands here for a good reputation.
12 tn In this line the second person pronoun is masculine plural, indicating that the exiles are addressed.
13 tn Or “for.”
14 tn Heb “I will make you into a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth.” Here the word “name” carries the nuance of “good reputation.”
15 tn Heb “when I restore your fortunes to your eyes.” See the note on the phrase “restore them” in 2:7.
16 sn An allusion to Dan 7:13.
17 tn Here καί (kai) was translated as ascensive.
18 sn An allusion to Zech 12:10.
19 tn In this context, tribes (φυλαί, fulai) could also be translated as “nations” or “peoples” (L&N 11.56).
20 tn The conjunction ἐπί (epi) is most likely causal here. The people who crucified him are those of every tribe on the earth and they will mourn because he comes as judge.
21 tn Grk “Yes, Amen.” The expression “This will certainly come to pass” is an attempt to capture the force of the juxtaposition of the Greek ναί (nai) and the Hebrew ἀμήν (amhn). See L&N 69.1.
22 sn These lines are placed in parentheses because they form an aside to the main argument.
23 tn Compare the similar phrase in Rev 16:7.
24 tn Or “has punished.” See BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.b.α, describing the OT background which involves both the vindication of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty.
25 tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
26 tn Grk “from her hand” (referring to her responsibility in causing the blood of God’s followers to be shed).
27 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
28 tn Or “her smoke ascends forever and ever.”
29 tn Grk “creatures fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
30 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
31 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
32 tn Grk “like the voice of a large crowd…saying.” Because of the complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the words “They were.”
33 tc Several
34 tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22…κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ὁ π. Rv 19:6.”
35 tn This verb and the next two verbs are hortatory subjunctives (giving exhortations).