Zephaniah 1:9

1:9 On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, ¹ 

who fill the house of their master ²  with wealth taken by violence and deceit. ³ 

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ⁴  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ⁵ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ⁶  while taking oaths in the name of ⁷  their ‘king,’ ⁸ 

Zephaniah 1:16

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ⁹  and battle cries. ¹⁰ 

Judgment will fall on ¹¹  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

Zephaniah 2:10

2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ¹² 

for they taunted and verbally harassed ¹³  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

Zephaniah 1:12

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

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹⁴ 

those who think to themselves, ¹⁵ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ¹⁶ 

Zephaniah 1:8

1:8 “On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal,

I will punish the princes ¹⁷  and the king’s sons,

and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. ¹⁸ 

Zephaniah 2:8

2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts

and the Ammonites’ insults.

They ¹⁹  taunted my people

and verbally harassed those living in Judah. ²⁰ 

Zephaniah 2:13

2:13 The Lord ²¹  will attack the north ²² 

and destroy Assyria.

He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;

it will be as barren ²³  as the desert.

Zephaniah 1:4

1:4 “I will attack ²⁴  Judah

and all who live in Jerusalem. ²⁵ 

I will remove ²⁶  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ²⁷ 

as well as the very memory ²⁸  of the pagan priests. ²⁹ 

[1:9]  ¹ sn The point of the statement all who hop over the threshold is unclear. A ritual or superstition associated with the Philistine god Dagon may be in view (see 1 Sam 5:5).

[1:9]  ² tn The referent of “their master” is unclear. The king or a pagan god may be in view.

[1:9]  ³ tn Heb “who fill…with violence and deceit.” The expression “violence and deceit” refers metonymically to the wealth taken by oppressive measures.

[1:5]  ⁴ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ⁶ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ⁸ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

[1:16]  ⁸ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

[1:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “this is for them in place of their arrogance.”

[2:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “made great [their mouth?] against” (cf. the last phrase of v. 8).

[1:12]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[1:8]  ¹⁶ tn Or “officials” (NRSV, TEV); NLT “leaders.”

[1:8]  ¹⁷ sn The very dress of the royal court, foreign styles of clothing, revealed the degree to which Judah had assimilated foreign customs.

[2:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and they made great [their mouth?] against their territory.” Other possible translation options include (1) “they enlarged their own territory” (cf. NEB) and (2) “they bragged about [the size] of their own territory.”

[2:13]  ²² tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:13]  ²³ tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”

[2:13]  ²⁴ tn Or “dry.”

[1:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will stretch out my hand against,” is an idiom for hostile action.

[1:4]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the remnant of Baal.”

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tc Heb “of the pagan priests and priests.” The first word (כְּמָרִים, kÿmarim) refers to idolatrous priests in its two other appearances in the OT (2 Kgs 23:5, Hos 10:5), while the second word (כֹּהֲנִים, kohanim) is the normal term for “priest” and is used of both legitimate and illegitimate priests in the OT. It is likely that the second term, which is omitted in the LXX, is a later scribal addition to the Hebrew text, defining the extremely rare word that precedes (see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 167-68; cf. also NEB, NRSV). Some argue that both words are original; among the modern English versions that include both are NASB and NIV. Possibly the first word refers to outright pagan priests, while the second has in view once-legitimate priests of the Lord who had drifted into idolatrous practices. Another option is found in Adele Berlin, who translates, “the idolatrous priests among the priests,” understanding the second word as giving the general category of which the idolatrous priests are a part (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 75).