Zephaniah 1:12-13

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹ 

those who think to themselves, ² 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ³ 

1:13 Their wealth will be stolen

and their houses ruined!

They will not live in the houses they have built,

nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted.

Zephaniah 1:17

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ⁴ 

and they will stumble ⁵  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ⁶  will be scattered ⁷  like manure.

Zephaniah 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ⁸ 

for ⁹  he will weaken ¹⁰  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ¹¹ 

Zephaniah 3:7

3:7 I thought, ¹²  ‘Certainly you will respect ¹³  me!

Now you will accept correction!’

If she had done so, her home ¹⁴  would not be destroyed ¹⁵ 

by all the punishments I have threatened. ¹⁶ 

But they eagerly sinned

in everything they did. ¹⁷ 

[1:12]  ¹ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ² tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ³ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[1:17]  ⁴ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

[1:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “walk.”

[1:17]  ⁶ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

[1:17]  ⁷ tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”

[3:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “fear.” The second person verb form (“you will respect”) is feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed.

[3:7]  ¹² tn Or “dwelling place.”

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

[3:7]  ¹⁵ 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.